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Cartoonist Fired After Being Accused Of Anti-Semitism 15 August 2003
(New Zealand Press Association) -- An award-winning cartoonist dumped by New Zealand's biggest newspaper because of his drawings on the Middle East conflict said he stood by his work and rejected an editor's right to direct what he could or could not draw. Malcolm Evans, twice named as the country's cartoonist of the year, says he was sacked by The New Zealand Herald after the newspaper received complaints from Jews about his cartoons on the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. Evans, who denied that his cartoons were anti-Semitic, said while he accepted an editor's right to reject a cartoon, he did not accept an editor's right to direct what he should draw. He said the paper's editor-in-chief, Gavin Ellis, had told him to stop submitting cartoons on Israel. However, Ellis said Evans had been sacked on legal advice, but would not comment further. Evans, who had worked for the Herald for seven years, told National Radio the argument had started when the paper received letters from readers about his cartoons critical of Israel. "I have got to acknowledge in the first instance that the paper had the balls to publish those cartoons, but once they were published and reaction came in, the paper seemed to shrink from association with them and ultimately I received this edict." The Waikato Times newspaper quoted Auckland rabbi Jeremy Lawrence saying he believed the cartoons lacked balance in their portrayal of Israeli-Palestinian relations and had double standards. Copyright © 2003. The Sydney Morning Herald.
Just after the NZ Herald published Dr Fudge's article, its editor proceeded to tell its cartoonist, the eminent Malcolm Evans, that cartoons on Israel and Zionism were forbidden. The NZ Jewish Council had complained about some of Evans' cartoons, and especially one that compared zionism to apartheid. Evans has resigned in disgust at the censorship. I've written the following e-mail to Evans:
14 August 2003 Dear Mr Evans Having viewed a rep. of the NZ Jewish Council on t.v. claiming that your cartoon equating Zionism with apartheid is an affront to Judaism, perhaps you'd care to ask the editor of the NZ Herald whether he has the foggiest idea as to what Judaism and its political offshoot Zionism, are based on? The Torah is replete with references to genocide, holocausts, and Hebrew separatism based on the notion of being God's Chosen People. If one delves deeper, the Talmud, the encyclopaedic commentary by rabbis on the Torah, as well as the mystical tradition embodied in the Lurianic Kabballah (the basis of Hasidic Judaism which is a politcal force in the USA and Israel) Orthodox Judaism regards non-Jews ('goyim') as animals at best, at worst emanations from the 'satanic sphere'. As for women, even Jewish women are regarded with the kind of contempt we are told is supposedly a feature of Islam. According to the Jewish authoress Evelyn Kaye (who was raised in an Orthodox community) the daily prayer of Orthodox male Jews includes "Thank you Lord for not making me a non-Jew, a slave, a woman." As for the NZ Jewish Council, their officials include members of the Wellington Hebrew Congregation, whose rabbi is from the NY Lubavitch Hasid community, whose late Rebbe, Schneerson, is heralded as the King-Messiah who will be resurrected and rule over a World Theocratic State, where the "idolatry" of Christianity will be punishbale by death (all this guff is on the Lubavitch websites, in English for anyone to read). The NZ Jewish Council has already destroyed the career of Joel Hayward, and at least indirectly has ended the tenure of Dr Thomas Fudge. You are to be commended for your integrity. Sincerely |
©-free 2003 Adelaide Institute