Quote of the day 30th April 2023

My quote today is from a statement issued by the Board of Deputies of British Jews about a statement they have made in response to a cartoon which appeared in yesterday's Guardian.

For the avoidance of doubt, I agree with the Board of Deputies: that cartoon crossed the line,



 














POSTSCRIPT - the Guardian has taken down the cartoon from their website following the complaints. 

Apologising, the author of the cartoon, Martin Rowson said through "carelessness and thoughtlessness I screwed up pretty badly". 

The Guardian said the cartoon did not meet its editorial standards.

Mr Rowson said the cartoon had gone "horribly wrong" and that while the representations were inadvertent he took full responsibility.

"Satirists, even though largely licensed to speak the unspeakable in liberal democracies, are no more immune to f****** things up than anyone else, which is what I did here," he said.

The cartoonist said Mr Shap's "Jewishness never crossed my mind as I drew him" but that "there are sensitivities it is our obligation to respect in order to achieve our satirical purposes".

"The cute squid and the little Rishi were no more than that, a cartoon squid and a short Prime Minister, it never occurring to me that some might see them as puppets of Sharp, this being another notorious antisemitic trope," he added.

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