The Guardian’s world-famous editorial cartoonist, Steve Bell, has been censored by his editors. He created a 2-part cartoon criticizing Labour MP and deputy Labour Party leader, Tom Watson, for joining forces with the UK Israel Lobby and Tories seeking to sabotage Party leader, Jeremy Corbyn. Watson has jumped on the anti-Semitism bandwagon demanding that the Party engage in a major purge of supposed anti-Semites within. The targets are almost always members of officials who’ve voiced support for Palestinian rights or criticized Israel as an apartheid state. Once again, and for what feels like the thousandth time, none of these are anti-Semitic in any way shape or form.
I’m displaying the four panels Bell penned so you can judge for yourself:
When Bell challenged them, the Guardian powers-that-be whined that Tom Watson was liable to sue them for libel. That was their excuse for refusing to publish. There is, of course, nothing anti-Semitic about the cartoons nor anything that could remotely be construed as libelous. This is simply a cowardly betrayal of artistic free speech and one of the finest editorial cartoonists remaining anywhere in the world.
This is one of the long line of recent acts of artistic censorship by major international newspapers. The NY Times international edition published a cartoon showing Bibi Netanyahu as a dog walking his blind master, Donald Trump. The artwork was a pungent statement of widely deserved criticism. Yet the Times liberal Zionist editorial staff, including op-ed editor, James Bennett, denounced the cartoon as anti-Semitic. The paper further announced it would no longer publish any editorial cartoons.
In Canada, another cartoonist published a troubling, disturbing image of Donald Trump playing golf and asking the drowned bodies of two Central American migrants if he minded if he “played through.” The newspaper’s owner, a major Tory Party donor and wealthy oil company owner, was none too happy and summarily fired the artist.
If you add to that, last week’s betrayal in which 300 Jewish progressives submitted a letter to the Guardian bemoaning the anti-Semitism smear and attesting to their support for Corbyn and the Labour Party. That Guardian published the letter for five minutes. Then it disappeared from its website to be replaced with a message saying the letter was “withdrawn pending further investigation.” The Board of Deputies, as deputized sentry for the Lobby, discovered that a single signatory of the 300 was not Jewish and had made questionable prior remarks, while another had included a reference to being a member of Hope Not Hate (which he was), to which that organization objected.
Of course, when a list of Jewish VIPs released their own letter denouncing Corbyn and the Party, they didn’t have to submit it as a letter. The Guardian published an entire news story covering the attack.
I used to publish regularly at the Guardian via Comment is Free. Georgina Henry (bless her soul), who was then the managing editor, actually wanted competing voices there. But then there was a coup of some sort. Many of us were escorted to the door. Though of course I was never told that was what was happening. They just one day accepted a piece for publication and then never published it. My editor, Richard Adams, kept telling me it would be published, but it never was. That, I knew, was the end.
Not only that, but the accounting office denied me payment for two pieces I wrote because it claimed I hadn’t submitted proper IRS forms. When I paid $600 to have my IRS tax forms reworked and resubmitted, it still wasn’t good enough for the bean counters and I was never paid. Katharine Viner, the current managing editor, has drunk the Kool Aid and become a creature of the Lobby, whether she knows it or not.
But the Guardian isn’t the only mainstay of the liberal old guard to be co-opted by this lunacy. Billy Bragg, who was once a champion of the working man, and Troubador of the people, has joined those braying for the head of MPs he deems insufficiently sensitive to supposed anti-Semitism. How the mighty have fallen.
NOTE: I will be interviewed on KPFK (Los Angeles) program, Middle East in Focus, this Sunday from 12 noon-12:30pm (listen live to audio stream). We’ll be talking about the Israeli national security state, its intelligencne apparatus and dirty ops firms which operate throughout the world.
Google has again served notice that my post, which announced that the Israeli police and courts ordered it to censor their results in Israel for this post, has itself been censored. But they not only censored the post itself, they censored the Facebook image of Ben Ezri which showed his name in Hebrew. Needless to say, almost every Israeli who wishes to know does know both pieces of information.
So why doesn’t he go over to Middle East Eye?
He wouldn’t be the first Guardian exile to turn up there.
@ Colin Wright: MEE doesn’t have a cartoonist.
Though the Guardian paid miserably for Comment is Free articles when I published there, I presume they pay their cartoonists a bit more. So he’s probably earning more at The Guardian than he would at MEE. But it’s not a bad idea.
It is readily apparent that the Guardian failed to use due diligence and ascertain the legitimacy of many of the “prominent Jewish” signatories to the letter.
For instance, the Anti-racism group, Hope Not Hate, was forced to clarify that they had never heard of one signatory who had claimed to be part of their organisation.
Three signatories, including Jackie Walker and Tony Greenstein, had been previously been suspended, expelled, or resigned from the Labour Party for anti-Semitism.
Elleane Green was earlier this year exposed as sharing Facebook posts claiming Israel was responsible for 9/11 and the the creation of ISIS.
https://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/palestine-live-group-creator-elleanne-green-shared-theories-about-israel-being-responsible-for-9-11-1.481715
Prominent Jew, indeed.
Another signatory, whose name appeared to have been removed from the list of signatories was Michael Morgan, who, in a tweet, called for Zionists to be exterminated, has stated that “Rothschild funded” various wars, and claimed that the Jews kill Jesus
https://twitter.com/supergutman/status/1148577336738156545
Why does the Board of Deputies have to act like a watchdog and police the media?
Bye, for now.
@ P Spot: First, I’ve summarized all the items you raise in my post. There was no need for you to resort to the pandering garbage of the Jewish Chroncile in order to draw this sordid tale out. Second, the Jewish Chronicle is a lying piece of garbage publication. Don’t ever mistake it for having any credibility here. It’s editor has been forced to apologize publicly after being sued for libel. I know this happened at least once, and possibly more. Pollard is a lying scumbag. Nothing he or the paper writes is true.
What nonsense! It was not the Guardian’s responsibility to vet the signatories of a letter to the editor. I know of no newspaper in the world that does this.
That’s curious because individual in question is actually a member of Hope Not Hate. What you mean to say is that the BoD pressured the NGO to dissociate itself from the individual. It is common knowledge that signatories of such statements do so only for identification purposes and do not do so in the name of the organization itself. The BoD and Hope Not Hate’s inference that its name was being used to legitimate the letter is absolutely false.
Jackie Walker and Tony Greenstein are admirable, courageous political activists. IT was only the idiotic lobbying of the BoD, JC and other Israel Lobby outfits which persuaded Labour to eject them. There is absolutely no reason why they should not be permitted to sign a letter criticizing a Labour Party witchhunt sponsored by the JC itself.
I have no idea what claim JC renders against Elleane Green. I wouldn’t believe it even if they offered proof, which they hardly do. And their “proof” would be nothing of the sort.
And yes, Jackie Walker, Tony Greenstein and the 298 other Jews who signed the letter are important, courageous activists who are prominent Jews. I signed the letter as well by the way. I am proud to have done so. It represents the highest values of Judaism’s ethical principles.
As for Morgan, his name was removed at one point in the process and it was added when a prior version of the letter was accidentally submitted to the Guardian. As a writer who has had precisely this happen to him, I know how easy it is for such mistakes to be made in submission of material for publication.
That makes one single suspect individual who signed the letter. On the strength of that one mistake the BoD has succeeded in muzzling legitimate political speech on Israel.
It is shameful. You are shameful.
You are a poodle of the Lobby and I am growing tired of you. You are on notice.
@Richard
“There is, of course, nothing anti-Semitic about the cartoons nor anything that could remotely be construed as libelous.”
I agree, there is nothing libelous in the content, nor is the cartoon anti-Semitic, per se.
What the cartoon does, is use Israeli leader Netanyahu to reinforce the anti-Semitic trope of Jews having too much power and controlling world leaders.
Here, Netanyahu is controlling Trump and Boris Johnson.
The cartoon is a pretty sad attempt to distract readers from the fact that it is the Labour Party that is investigating itself for failing to address anti-Semitism among it’s rank and file.
In this cartoon, Watson’s horse discovers an anti-Semitic trope—Bibi the puppet master controlling President Trump and the Tory leader, Boris Johnson.
Strange guy, this cartoonist.
@ P Spot:
Not only is this a lie, Netanyahu clearly relishes the power he exerts over world leaders. He brags of such exploits. Therefore, he is fair game for such characterization. Netanyahu himself is a perfect exemplar of the worst Israel has to offer the world. Further, the criticism of Netanyahu has nothing to do with his Jewishness. He is criticized as an Israeli. There is a great difference between the two. You are offering the worst smear in this passage. I resent it. I find it odious. You are abusing anti-Semitism for your own political purposes. That offends me.
After an Israeli strategic affairs operative was caught trying to destroy the career of deputy FM Alan Duncan on tape by Al Jazeera, you have a lot of f****** nerve complaining about Netanyahu being portrayed as controlling Trump and Johnson. Besides, the cartoon doesn’t portray Netanyahu as “controlling” them. Bibi says in the cartoon that they are his “friends.” However you concocted the notion that he controls them lies somewhere in your self-absorbed, monomaniacal brain.
The next time you publish offensive garbage like this here, you’ll be moderated.
You are done in this thread.
I may be mis-navigating the guardian site, but I can only find the first two of the four panels of the If cartoon Richard shows. Once Natanyahu appears the guardian seem to have pulled the plug on Steve Bell…. curious.
@ Joe Blow: Two panels were published. Two panels were censored. But you’re right, the Guardian didn’t have a problem with Tom Watson as a character. Once he added Netanyahu, that’s when the cartoons became radioactive.
Is it a bird? Is it it a plane? No! It’s a TROPE….
I have been mystified by the ongoing “Labour anti-semitism row,” and find myself unable to find any clearly anti-semitic statement from senior labour figures or MP s. Self-serving outrage is how it comes across.
The Guardian has become a symbol of how our society is crumbling, we are heading for a right wing dictatorship.
‘Once he added Netanyahu, that’s when the cartoons became radioactive.’ – of course that how it will happen. It like a cartoon of a pig is nothing to care about but once you add a prophet eating it, it becomes ‘radioactive’ and islamophobic.
@ Judy Green: Nonsense. Netanyahu is not a prophet. Not by any stretch of the imagination. He is no religious figure. He’s an Israeli politician. There is nothing anti-Semitic about a cartoon criticizing him.
This morning’s Guardian has “If” back including Bibi, but he’s left his puppets behind so there’s no trope… so that’s all right then. Almost all the media in the U.K. are repedalling this “anti-semitism in Labour” b.s. without anyone producing anything like evidence, never mind a smoking gun.
You has forget the germans liberal Newpaper Süddeutsche Zeitung https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%BCddeutsche_Zeitung ,
“A leading German daily fired a cartoonist over anti-semitic views on Friday after he drew a caricature of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The cartoon by Dieter Hanitzsch showed Netanyahu carrying a missile in his hand. He is dressed up as Israeli singer Netta Barzilai, who won this year’s Eurovision contest. A speech bubble on top says: “Next year in Jerusalem.”
The cartoon led to an uproar on social media and other German media outlets.
Suddeutsche Zeitung’s Editor-in-Chief Wolfgang Krach apologised for the caricature, however Hanitzsch refused.
Speaking to local media outlets, the 85-year-old cartoonist said he wanted to criticise Netanyahu’s exploitation of the Eurovision contest for his own purposes and accused him of abusing the singer’s victory.
He added that it was not a common thing for a newspaper to fire its cartoonist over a drawing.”
From here, https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20180520-german-cartoonist-sacked-after-netanyahu-drawing/