The inclusion of the cartoonist and Opera Mundi contributor Carlos Latuff in the Top Ten Anti-Semitic Slurs list by the Simon Wiesenthal Center is a regrettable and alarming use of the concept of anti-Semitism. By twisting the term to suit immediate political needs, the Simon Wiesenthal Center impoverishes the debate on the question of Palestine, and at the same time, erodes the credibility of the fair fight against the prejudice that the Jewish people have suffered and still suffer.
Whether referring to the problem of the Indian lands in Brazil, defending the Egyptian democracy, or condemning Israel’s attacks on Gaza, Latuff’s cartoons are a brave critic of the powerful states and an unquestioning defense of the rights of the most fragile contemporary populations.
Carlos Latuff/Opera Mundi
The political cartoon that made the Simon Wiesenthal Center include him in the list of the ten most anti-Semitists in the world is enough to prove the inconsistency of such serious accusation: the cartoon doesn´t mention Judaism as a religion and makes no reference to the Jewish people. It’s an explicit critic to Israel’s government, which, on the cartoon, “wrings” a Palestinian child to gain some votes. The Simon Wiesenthal Center says that, “during the recent conflict instigated by Hamas against the Jewish state, the Brazilian cartoonist slandered Israel and its Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for doing what every world leader would do against the onslaught of rocket attacks targeting innocent civilians”.
Well, the cartoon speaks for itself. The image does not attack the Jewish State, but its main leader. It criticizes the fact that the attacks promoted by Israel on the Palestinian side provoke the same thing Israel would like to avoid on their side: the death of innocents.
Even the greatest defender of Israel’s position knows that the number of deaths on both sides is disproportional, especially among civilians. And the deaths in Gaza are not only limited to periods of conflict, they continue after the attacks due to the large-scale destruction of its infrastructure and the fact that its whole territory becomes economically unfeasible because of the physical and military barriers.
For comparison, it’s enough to mention what made the Simon Wiesenthal Center include the European soccer fans as number four in the list. In a recent match against Tottenham Hotspuer, a team based in a Jewish-populated neighborhood in London, the West Ham United fans chanted ”Adolf Hitler is coming for you” and “You’re getting gassed in the morning”.
So there is no doubt: followers of Latuff’s work know that, if he had been alive seventy years ago, Hitler himself would be bothered by his political cartoons denouncing the holocaust. Five hundred years ago, the inquisition would treat him as a case of Judaism.
Latuff’s anti-Zionism cannot, thus, be confused with anti-Semitism. To be an adversary of Israel’s government (and even of the State of Israel, as many left and right wing Jews are), is not the same as being against the Jewish people and Judaism. It’s wrong to identify Zionism and Judaism, but the confusion is stimulated by leaders such as Netanyahu and his allies in media vehicles and institutions.
Thus, it’s sad that the Jewish leaders and entities can’t identify Latuff’s work as a rough critic – but honest and free of racism – against the abuses that make an effective peace agreement in Palestine impossible.
NULL
NULL