January 28, 2013

Letters to the Editor
The Sunday Times

To the Editor:

The Sunday Times has clearly lost its moral bearings in publishing a cartoon by Gerald Scarfe with a blatantly anti-Semitic theme and motif which is a modern day evocation of the ancient “blood libel” charge leveled at Jews (“Will cementing peace continue?,” Jan. 27).

There is nothing subtle about the caricatured image of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu using Palestinians and their blood to build a wall to “protect” Israelis.  This is the stuff which historically justified hatred of Jews and led to anti-Jewish pogroms and the wholesale slaughter of Jews.

Your spokesman’s defense of the cartoon as “a typically robust cartoon … that is not anti-Semitic” was tone deaf and wholly inadequate.  There is a line between legitimate criticism of Israel and that which is not only illegitimate, but anti-Semitic.  This is not even close.  It is way over that line.

The Sunday Times should be ashamed and should immediately apologize for its gross insensitivity.

Sincerely,

The Anti-Defamation League