Juliet Moses: We need to talk about THAT cartoon

The Daily Blog guest blog: Juliet Moses – We need to talk about THAT cartoon

We need to talk about THAT cartoon. The one The Daily Blog published three times, that depicts Zionism as a virus, with a familiar-looking Nazi-style “S”. The one by Malcom Evans, who claims he was dumped by the NZ Herald for an anti-Israel cartoon, although the Herald has publicly refuted that.

Let’s start with what we can all agree on. It is not antisemitic to criticise Israel in the same way you would criticise any other country. Israel can and should be criticised like any other country.

But not everything negative you hear about Israel constitutes “criticism”. Lies, conspiracy theories, a denial of history and facts, a refusal to acknowledge that Israel exists or a call for it to be dismantled or destroyed, alone among all the world’s nations …none of these are “criticism” of Israel. It’s strawmanning to pass it off as such.

For example, saying that Israel was behind 9/11 is not criticism of Israel. Neither is declaring that Israel’s spy agency Mossad and “Zionist business houses” were behind the Christchurch mosque attacks, as the chairman of New Zealand’s biggest mosque did at an “anti-racism” rally just after those attacks.

But if they don’t mention Jews or the Jewish people, can those assertions be antisemitic – expressing or manifesting hostility or hatred towards Jews?

Read NZ Jewish Council spokesperson Juliet Moses’ guest blog on The Daily Blog in full here.