Funny That!
Back in April of 2019 Western media were falling over themselves in fits of apoplexy over this cartoon, by Portuguese cartoonist Ant?nio Moreira Antunes, which they all deemed to be so anti-Semetic as to warrant repeated grovelling apologies. The New York Times not only published several apologies, calling the image “offensive” and its appearance in its international edition the result of a “faulty process”, but actually decided, then and there, to stop publishing political cartoons altogether.
Now, following Trump’s decision to follow Israel into a full scale war on Iran, so bringing the world to the brink of World War three, not only are cartoonists the world over producing identical cartoon comments, Trump’s own Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, has said exactly the point the cartoon conveys. “We knew Israel was going to attack and so had to attack too”, or words to that effect.
It’s now more than twenty years since my cartoons critical of Israel saw me sacked from the New Zealand Herald and “let go” by other new Zealand dailies that subsequently published my work. As disgraceful a repudiation of the principle of “free Speech” as my sackings were, what is most disgraceful is that in all the years since, and despite Isreal’s ever-increasing depravities having been comdemned by the ICJ and the United Nations, not one of the cartoonists who were hired in my stead, many since awarded the NZ Cartoonist of the Year trophy, has produced a cartoon critical of Israel.
Not one!
Funny That!
