The Guardian has not renewed its contract with cartoonist Steve Bell after his artwork depicting the Israeli prime minister was “pulled” from publication.
Mr Bell confirmed his sketch of Benjamin Netanyahu in the wake of the Hamas attack on Israel had been “spiked” by the publisher.
The image showed the Israeli prime minister preparing to operate on his own stomach wearing boxing gloves, where an outline of the Gaza Strip could be seen with the caption “Residents of Gaza, get out now”.
Just to explain. I filed this cartoon around 11am, possibly my earliest ever. Four hours later, on a train to Liverpool I received an ominous phone call from the desk with the strangely cryptic message "pound of flesh"... pic.twitter.com/kSfmfzlmhy
— Steve Bell (@BellBelltoons) October 9, 2023
On Monday, a spokesperson for Guardian News and Media said: “The decision has been made not to renew Steve Bell’s contract.
“Steve Bell’s cartoons have been an important part of The Guardian over the past 40 years – we thank him and wish him all the best.”
Mr Bell posted a series of tweets saying he had received a “strangely cryptic message” during a phone call with Guardian staff referencing a “pound of flesh” after he first submitted the cartoon.
The artist said he had responded saying: “I’m sorry, I don’t understand, I said and received this even more mysterious reply: ‘Jewish bloke; pound of flesh; antisemitic trope’. Clearly it was self-evident, anybody could see it…”
It has been reported that a pound of flesh could be in reference to Shylock, the Jewish moneylender in Shakespeare’s The Merchant Of Venice.
“It is getting pretty nigh impossible to draw this subject for the Guardian now without being accused of deploying ‘antisemitic tropes’,” Mr Bell previously said on Twitter.
Mr Bell’s final cartoon for The Guardian showed British prime minister Rishi Sunak’s “decision to scrap HS2 leg” on October 4th.
