uardian cartoonist Steve Bell has claimed he has been successfully sacked by the paper after he was accused of submitting anti-Semitic work.
The choice got here after he was criticised for a cartoon exhibiting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu getting ready to function on his personal torso, which included an overview of the form of the Gaza Strip, following the attacks by Hamas.
The Guardian refused to publish it with one workers member suggesting it was a reference to Shylock, the Jewish moneylender in Shakespeare’s The Service provider of Venice who calls for a “pound of flesh”, with one Tory MP branding the image “deeply offensive”.
Mr Bell defended the picture saying it was a reference to a Nineteen Sixties cartoon of then-US President Lyndon B. Johnson with a scar on his torso formed just like the map of Vietnam.
A Guardian spokesman stated: “The choice has been made to not renew Steve Bell’s contract. Steve Bell’s cartoons have been an vital a part of the Guardian over the previous 40 years – we thank him and need him all one of the best.”
Steve Bell of The Guardian (left) with London Mayor Boris Johnson as he exhibits off a drawing he made at Metropolis Corridor after taking classes from Britain’s prime cartoonists
/ PAIt isn’t the primary time claims of anti-Semitism have been made in opposition to the artist who got here underneath fireplace three years in the past after a cartoon of Sir Keir Starmer holding Jeremy Corbyn’s head on a plate was seen by some as a reference to the pinnacle of John the Baptist being offered to Salome, the daughter of the Jewish King Herod.
Mr Bell informed the Morning Star “I used to do three editorial cartoons per week” for the Guardian however that they had “removed it utterly”.
He stated the choice was devastating, including: “They stated they gained’t publish something extra of mine though I’m on the books till April 2024.”