The Guardian and Steve Bell are heading for the rocks, it seems. Paradoxically it’s over the Guardian banning his new cartoon strip. It shows Tom Watson as the ‘antisemite-finder general’. Too close to the bone for the Guardian, which has been cheerleading the same witch-hunt
Guardian cartoonist Steve Bell emails staff about Tom Watson-Benjamin Netanyahu piece which wasn’t run today, complaining about the Guardian’s “mysterious editorial line that has been drawn around the subject of antisemitism and the infernal subject of ‘antisemitic tropes’”:
Why in today’s paper as the Guardian published a highly partisan and personal insulting (to the leader of the Labour Party) advert on page 20 that uses the Labour Party logo, but is clearly not a Labour Party approved advert?
I would have thought that there would be far more reason to expect a legal challenge on that than on my cartoon. Or is it that you don’t want to offend poor Tom but are quite happy to offend Poor Jeremy?
Where they the wrong kind of Jews.
Why on earth did the Guardian published then unpublished a letter in support of Chris Williamson signed by 100 persons identifying themselves as Jewish, including Noam Chomsky? Where they the wrong kind of Jews.
The papers contortions on this subject do not do it any credit. If there is a reasoned position on this highly contemptuous issue, then I would dearly love to see it laid out clearly so we all know where we stand. Or are there some subjects that we just can’t touch?
Best wishes Steve Bell
In all email to all the paper’s journalists, Guardian cartoonist Steve Bell has attacked his editors’ refusal to run his latest cartoon, suggesting it is due to “some mysterious editorial line” about antisemitism.
In the latest submission by Mr Bell, whose cartoons have appeared in the paper since 1981, Labour deputy leader Tom Watson is depicted as an “antisemite finder general” for being critical of Jew-hate in the party.
The instalment depicts Mr Watson encountering Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and calling him an “antisemitic trope”.
“After our bizarre telephone conversation yesterday, I feared you might not publish today’s strip,” Mr Bell wrote to an editor, copying in every journalist on the paper.
“You said the ‘lawyers are concerned’ but about what? It’s not antisemitic nor is it libellous…
“I suspect the real cause is it contravenes some mysterious editorial line that has been drawn around the subject of antisemitism and the infernal subject of antisemitic tropes.
“In some ways this is even more worrying than the specious charges of antisemitism. Does the Guardian no longer tolerate content that runs counter to its editorial line?”
