‘Anti-Semitic’ cartoon in Berkeley paper depicting Alan Dershowitz blasted as ‘offensive, appalling’
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The student newspaper at the University of California, Berkeley, is under fire for publishing an editorial cartoon depicting Harvard professor and famed attorney Alan Dershowitz that critics say is “anti-Semitic” and “appalling” and littered with stereotypes of Jews.
The Daily Californian cartoon shows Dershowitz’s smiling face poking through a wall while on the other side he’s stomping on someone holding a Palestinian flag and supporting in his hand a gun-toting Israel Defense Forces soldier who’s standing over a bloody body.
“The image contains classic stereotypes of Jews: a figure with a hooked nose and thick lips acting in a conniving and dishonest manner to cover up a bloody crime,” Israel advocates Stand with Us said in a statement.
Carol Christ, chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley, blasted the student newspaper in a letter to the editor for running the cartoon, calling it “offensive, appalling and deeply disappointing”:
“I condemn its publication. Are you aware that its anti-Semitic imagery connects directly to the centuries-old ‘blood libel’ that falsely accused Jews of engaging in ritual murder? I cannot recall anything similar in The Daily Californian, and I call on the paper’s editors to reflect on whether they would sanction a similar assault on other ethnic or religious groups. We cannot build a campus community where everyone feels safe, respected and welcome if hatred and the perpetuation of harmful stereotypes become an acceptable part of our discourse.”
Dershowitz applauded Christ’s stance against the cartoon.
“There must be a single standard for criticizing all forms of bigotry,” he told the Washington Free Beacon. “The chancellor would have criticized a racist, sexist, homophobic, or anti-Muslim cartoon. [Carol Christ] was right to criticize the anti-Semitic one.”
Karim Doumar, the Daily Californian’s editor in chief, wrote that the paper has “seen with sharp clarity the pain and anger” the Oct. 18 cartoon elicited and “we apologize for this.”
“The artist’s intent was to argue that the contents of civil liberties lawyer and professor emeritus at Harvard Law School Alan Dershowitz’s recent lecture at UC Berkeley were hypocritical,” Doumar added. “We regret that the artistic rendering distracted from the discussion the artist was trying to start.”
More from Doumar’s note:
The criticism we have received reaffirms for us a need for a more critical editing eye, and a stronger understanding of the violent history and contemporary manifestations of anti-Semitism. We appreciate those who have reached out offering to help us better our understanding of these issues. We will be taking them up on the offer.
Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro also criticized the cartoon in a Fox News interview. The relevant portion begins at the 3:15 mark:
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