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The Guardian excises Steve Bell
THE POPULAR Guardian cartoonist Steve Bell, a long-time freelance, has been fired over a cartoon that editors pronounced anti-semitic.
Steve Bell's cartoon showed Netanyahu about to carve Gaza from his own abdomen. Please note the credit to US cartoonist David Levine, who in 1966 famously depicted former US President Lyndon B Johnson excising Vietnam - where the US was embroiled in war - from his own stomach. Johnson had a gall bladder operation and showed the media the scar. Guardian editors said the cartoon referenced the "pound of flesh" demanded by the Jewish trader Shylock in Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice.
When they refused to use the cartoon of Benjamin Netanyahu, Steve Bell, who retains copyright in his work, published it himself on X. They told him this had "crossed the line"; they would not renew his contract nor publish any more of his work.
He had worked for the Guardian continuously for 42 years. His work was widely appreciated and won numerous awards. But in recent years he had fallen out of favour, his contributions were cut back and he found more of them being rejected. He said: "The Guardian's got more cautious about things and recently there's been more strips bumped back because somebody thinks it's transgressing something or other."
This was the second cartoon featuring Netanyahu to be rejected by editors for supposed anti-semitism; in effect Steve Bell has been branded an anti-semite by his own paper. But he says he has received few hostile messages and many more accolades; indeed, the Jewish News, a paper not known for missing instances of Jew-hatred, carried an article stating that the new cartoon was not one.
The cartoonist said: "I don't promote harmful anti-semitic stereotypes. I would not dream of doing such a thing."
The 1966 cartoon by David Levene
His sacking is in line with growth of pro-Israeli sentiment being expressed as questionable accusations of anti-semitism against the state's political opponents; the understanding that criticism of the state or its rulers is not racism against Jewish people seems to have evaporated.
The war in Israel with the blitz of Gaza have further polarised opinion, as the bulk of the news media demand punishment of anybody who dares challenge the gang of war criminals in Tel Aviv.
The Guardian, though a liberal paper, has been prominent in advancing this tendency, notably with its persistent accusations against the Labour Party under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn.
Steve Bell told the November London Freelance Branch meeting: "If they don't want me to work for them, obviously they are totally entitled to do that. But then to leave me with a smear against my name - that I'm a racist or some kind of anti-semite - is a terrible thing."
Steve Bell is a member of LFB and freelance rep on the Guardian chapel. The Guardian is honouring the terms of his contract but he says he wants to negotiate over his severance; the NUJ is offering to help.
The Guardian would only say: "The decision has been made not to renew Steve Bell's contract. Steve Bell's cartoons have been an important part of the Guardian over the past 40 years - we thank him and wish him all the best."
- Steve Bell will address the London Freelance Branch meeting on 13 November.
We remember journalists killed in Israel-Gaza conflict