Israel vs. Palestinians and My Cartoon Trip to the Middle East
By Daryl Cagle | November 1st, 2009 | PERMALINK
The conflict between Israel and the Palestinians still looms large in cartoons around the world, with an endless flow of cartoons from Arab countries showing monster-Israel assaulting, eating, crushing or somehow decimating the poor Palestinians. The dove of peace has been killed by Israel in every imaginable cartoon - crushed, squeezed, stabbed, burned, eaten. Poor bird.
The conflict goes on forever, long after every original cartoon idea has been exhausted. Americans don’t see much of these cartoons because they would be regarded here as anti-Semitic at worst, or as the same thing over and over, at best.
Here I am at the tomb of Yassir Arafat in Ramallah.
After Algeria, my Middle East speaking tour took me to Egypt, Israel and the Palestinian territories. At my first event in Cairo I spoke to a group of Egyptian journalists who brought a newspaper up to me, proudly pointing out that in Egypt, editorial cartoons are often printed big and in color on the front page of the newspaper. The cartoon they showed me would make an American editor choke; it showed a spitting snake, in the shape of a Star of David; inside the snake/star was a peace dove, behind bars, and above the snake, in Arabic, were the words, “It’s not about the bird flu, it’s about the swine flu.”
I explained that in America this cartoon would be regarded as anti-Semitic, and it would never be printed. The Egyptian journalists were emphatic, explaining to me that the cartoon was about Israel, not about Jews - an important distinction to them.
“Israel isn’t mentioned anywhere in the cartoon,” I said.
“But we all know the Jewish star is the symbol of Israel,” they responded.
I said, “It is a religious symbol. It is the same as if I took the star and crescent off of the flag of Pakistan and drew a similar cartoon, saying it was about Pakistan.” They didn’t respond to me, my comment was such nonsense. I continued, “The cartoon seems to say that Jews are like snakes and pigs.”
“No, no! We have lots of symbols for Israel that we all know, like the Jew with black clothes and a big hooked nose!” one of the Egyptian journalists insisted with some passion. “We like Jews, we just don’t like Israel!”
The newspaper with the cartoon disappeared when I mentioned that I would like to scan the cartoon for a column about our spirited conversation. The Egyptian journalists all continued to insist that I misunderstood what the cartoon meant.
I had an opportunity to meet with a group of Palestinian editorial cartoonists in Gaza by teleconference. I sympathize with their plight; the poor cartoonists had almost no outlets to print their cartoons. One of the Gaza cartoonists showed me a cartoon he was proud of, showing an alligator eating a dove. I told him I didn’t understand the cartoon, and he explained that the alligator was blue, “which everyone understands to be Israel” and the dove had green wings, “which everyone understands to be Palestine.”
I tried to come up with some advice for the Gaza cartoonists on how to get their work published. I suggested that they could submit their work to international publications, but that it would be tough if every cartoon was another Israel/monster cartoon. The cartoonists responded to say that in Gaza, they are under siege, and they don’t care to draw anything else.
I suggested that the Gaza cartoonists need to coax Western editors into printing their cartoons, and they would do well to consider some other angles, for example, drawing about their personal experiences and day-to-day difficulties. Palestinian cartoons criticizing Hamas and Fatah are rarely seen and would get reprinted. I spoke with one West Bank Palestinian cartoonist, Amer Shomali, who lost his gig with his newspaper because he insisted on drawing cartoons critical of Fatah; he was so frustrated that he rented a billboard to post a Fatah cartoon that his newspaper refused to publish. The billboard was swiftly taken down.
Here I am in Ramallah with Palestinian cartoonist Khalil Arafeh.
I explained to the Gaza cartoonists that when the Israel/Palestine conflict is big in the news, and we post cartoons about the topic on our site, our www.cagle.msnbc.com traffic goes down. Americans are not very interested in events that happen outside of America, especially when it is the same news story, year after year. I told them that the most popular topic ever on our site was Janet Jackson’s boob, and that our readers really like cartoons about cute puppies. Hearing this, the Gaza cartoonists stared at me blankly, and then urged me to organize an international exhibition of cartoons that highlight their plight at the hands of Israel.
Not all Palestinian cartoonists fit the same Israel/monster mold. I met two interesting West Bank cartoonists in Ramallah. The cartoon below is by Khalil Abu Arafeh, who has a nice style and range; he draws for the Al Quds, the big newspaper in the West Bank. This cartoon is about the United Nations Goldstone report, when they were looking for witnesses to testify about Israeli war crimes in the recent Gaza incursion, a lady stands out from the crowd saying, “We are all witnesses.”
"We are all witnesses." Cartoon by Khalil I. Abu Arafeh, of the Palestinian West Bank newspaper Al Quds.
Another interesting Palestinian cartoonist in Ramallah is Ramzy Taweel, who draws about everyday life in the West Bank, and posts his cartoons on Facebook here. I regret that they are all in Arabic, and incomprehensible to most of our American audience, but the cartoons are quite nice. Â Befriend Ramzy and take a look at his cartoons. It would be good if we could send a few new Facebook friends Ramzy’s way.
After meeting with the Egyptian journalists and Palestinian cartoonists, I spoke in Israel to close to three hundred students in a crowded auditorium at the Bezalel Academy of Art & Design and to a Journalism class at Hebrew University. I also spoke to a journalism class in the West Bank, at Birzeit University. The students were all great fun.
Thanks again to the U.S. State Department for arranging the trip and the speaking engagements.
11/2/09 Postscript
Ramzy Taweel just sent me these interesting cartoons to post here. Â Be sure to friend Ramzi on Facebook to see more cartoons.
Comments
Comment from Daryl Cagle
Time November 1, 2009 at 7:44 am
I enjoyed your blog about your recent trip to Iraq, Tom. Great stuff - I was sorry to miss that trip!
Comment from BaileyMcC
Time November 1, 2009 at 7:49 am
Really powerful experience. I can only imagine the impact it had on all parties involved.
Comment from Benjamin Barnett
Time November 1, 2009 at 2:49 pm
Great article. We appreciated the tough stance with the cartoonists. True journalism. Stop by the studios when in Philadelphia.
Comment from Donna Barstow
Time November 1, 2009 at 3:32 pm
This is all strange. The State Dept arranged a trip for a cartoonist? Maybe they’ll do poets next.
I had to read the description of the cartoon twice to understand it. Yeah, you can’t call Jewish people swine - but I don’t know, what about calling the Pope names? Seen it. What about using a cross in a cartoon?- okay, maybe a paper editor wouldn’t buy it, but they hardly buy anything anyway these days. I just think that religious symbols shouldn’t be off-limits or censored. I see terribly nasty things done with elephants and donkeys. It’s all name-calling.
I don’t know if you were being ironic about the puppies, but it sounds like you really gave everyone hope, Daryl, which is so important in these countries. That was great. I think you were like an ambassador.
Comment from Robin ‘Roblimo’ Miller
Time November 1, 2009 at 6:01 pm
I went on a USAID-sponsored trip to Jordan in 2003 and to Saudi Arabia in 2004, both times to speak at open source conferences. (I’m a well-known journalist in that part of the IT sector.)
In both countries, intelligent and well-educated people assured me that:
1) The 9-11 attacks on the U.S. were masterminded by Israel.
2) All four anti-Israel wars were started by Israel, not by the attacking Arab armies.
3) Microsoft, because of its ruinous, anti-Sharia software licensing policies, was obviously run by Jews.
4) Most American women are prostitutes and harridans — unlike *our* women, who are modest and religious and willingly submit to Islamic restrictions on their clothing and behavior. (This was what men told me, anyway.)
I, too, noticed the endless anti-Jewish propaganda in those Arab states. Remember the long-discredited Protocols of the Elders of Zion? They are still taught in Saudi schools as fact. And oy! Those endless nasty cartoon images of Jews and of an evil, leering Uncle Sam whose hands dripped with blood. Stomach-turning.
And yet, most of the individuals I met were generous, friendly, and hospitable. We just avoided talking about politics and religion. The technocrats who arranged my trips to both countries, along with my hosts while I was there, knew I was Jewish. But these were generally American-educated engineers and (by local standards) wild-eyed radical liberals and didn’t tell anyone else.
Many of the people I met in both Jordan and Saudi Arabia were amazed by how much I knew about Islam and its heritage of glory in between bouts of bloodshed. Most Americans know little or nothing about Islam and Islamic law or the way it has added restrictions (especially on women) in the last few hundred years.
One day, there may be some sort of “New Islam” that is based on poetry and science, not hatred. I believe the seeds are there. It may come about in our lifetime, and it may take hold 100 or 200 years from now. But it will be a powerful force when it comes, which I believe it inevitably will.
Comment from Rafiq Raja
Time November 2, 2009 at 2:58 am
Wonderful first hand account, Cagle. I only wish that they project their plight in a better and different way, then following the same stereotype, which has been told and retold many times, to the outer world.
Comment from Ormond Otvos
Time November 2, 2009 at 1:55 pm
An interesting commentary, which should be published in CommonDreams.org AND on Redstate.com and DailyKos, etc.
Perhaps one of your imaginative cohort of cartoonists could draw a series of cartoons describing this new Islam of science and poetry, both of which do have antecedents in the past glories of Islam.
It could be couched in a \"Return to the Basics\" sort of appeal to the Good Old Days when Islam encouraged free thought for all sexes.
Of course it would be necessary to allow people to believe as they wished, and experiment without a death penalty for rejecting any particular belief.
\"We\’re sorry to see you go!\" is so much better than \"We\’ll kill you if you leave!\" That IS sort of a unique characteristic of the current warped version of what could be a replacement for Scientology…
I\’m a hard atheist, but I won\’t kill you if you aren\’t…
Comment from Michael
Time November 2, 2009 at 2:07 pm
Interesting account.
What does the Arabic Text say in the last cartoon with the man and the woman talking (where her face turns red in the left panel).
Also, you said that Israel was also included in your trip, but you didn\’t mention any encounters with Israeli cartoonists.
The Israeli media is very liberal (like the Western Media), did you notice a variety of viewpoints amongst Israeli cartoonists?
Comment from Glen
Time November 2, 2009 at 2:10 pm
Given the ‘education’ that seems a common denominator in greater Arabia, it would seem that civilization there may be several generations away. We had best secure both our borders as well as energy independence.
Comment from dismal
Time November 2, 2009 at 2:36 pm
I must agree with Roblimo and Michael. I believe you’ll find the opinion of Israeli journalists much more varied than those of Egyptian and/or Palestinian journalists.
I also believe many antisemites use anti Zionism or anti Israeli policies as a cover for their anti semitism. It’s hard to argue that you;re not anti Jewish when the same cartoons could have appeared in Der Sturm — just substitute Arabic for the Gothic German script. .
You would also be wise to remember this is the Middle East. It used to be: first the Saturday people then the Sunday people. Unfortunately, for them, the Saturday people problem has proven intractable.
Comment from Paul K
Time November 2, 2009 at 2:55 pm
Glen, 1st of all education needs to be separated between belief and functional education. Think how many educated Americans believed (and probably many still do) that there was a connection between Iraq and 9/11. Think how many educated Americans continue to believe that you have to wait 6 months to get health care in Canada (which is just not true). Think how many educated Americans claim to not believe in Evolution. Think how little most American\’s understand foreign politics. If you travel in other countries and read the news presented there, it can be shocking how different it is than what we see/read in the US. The problem is that news is composed of a lot of \"lies\" in every country (including ours). Some is intentional, some is local perspective, and some is filtering. We all know from Fox News that intentional manipulation can change the meaning of anything. But, even with news outlets that try to be fair and balanced (really fair, not as a marketing slogan), it is easy to color with bias and beliefs.
To take a couple simple examples: We view violent opponents of regimes we like as Terrorists, but of ones we do not like, they are freedom fighters. Usually only difference is what kind of new government they are trying to install.
Another simple example is oppression. Oppression as a word is too big a blanket for too complex a situation in so many cases. In some cases such as when South Africa had Apartheid, it was pretty easy to see real oppression. But, most cases are not black and white (no pun intended). Even the case of the Palestinians: Israel will no longer allow free movement of Palestinians in Israel because of suicide bombers. You can say that such restrictions is oppression, but would you want suicide bombers roaming your streets? Both sides are at fault in complex tit for tat ways (e.g. rockets & settlements), but there is no easy explanation of any of it. So, both sides are always looking for an easy idiom to describe the other side.
We in the West tend to like simple monikers as well. We want to know a group is friendly or terrorists. The complex and murky friends like the Afghani, Pakistani, and Iraqi governments make that very hard. In the previous administration, we were given simpler explanations of each government as friend or foe, and we likely looked about as stupid as those Daryl describes.
Governments and religions will create false beliefs in people because it suits their purposes. This is a classic problem. Just because someone is well educated in something like Engineering, or has been trained how to draw cartoons, does not mean that they are immune to manipulation.
Comment from Burt
Time November 2, 2009 at 3:01 pm
Were you able to find any cartoons of Palestinian suicide bombers? And what about Palestinian or Egyptian cartoons showing God or Allah sitting in judgement of these suicide bombers?
It’s curious that there is a commonly held sympathy for the oppressed Palestinians, and how they are constantly held down by the evil state of Israel, while their Arab brothers have perpetuated, for over 60 years, the misery of the Palestinians by supplying them with hate and arms, but no solution!
It almost goes without saying that there do not seem to be any Arabic cartoons of the random raining of missiles launched from Gaza and Lebanon onto Israel. Why do you think that is?
Comment from JM in Dallas
Time November 2, 2009 at 3:15 pm
Very interesting experience–thanks for the comments. Being Jewish I feel a kindship to Israel and at times wonder if they are not giving the Palestine\’s a break UNTIL I read your comments about the attitudes and experiences you had. It is pretty hard to broker a peace or negotiate if there is no one to negotiate with. Until the Arab political leaders allow some degree of freedom of speech to their people and raise the education level, it sure seems hopeless. Your experience with the cartoonists really seemed to bring out that problem.
Comment from B. Burnett
Time November 2, 2009 at 3:21 pm
Are Egyptian and Algerian schoolbooks still depicting Jews in general and Israelis in particular as pigs or dogs or snakes, as they have for decades?
Egyptian officials have repeatedly promised to quit this practice for years, but it still seemed to be prevalent when I was there last year.
Much like Cagle’s experience, the individual Egyptians I met were friendly. Because we could speak French, most Egyptians seem to think my wife and I were French, or Canadians, and at such times I did not bother to correct that notion.
Also like Cagle’s experience, they could speak volumes about horrifying Jewish atrocities going back hundred or years all over the Middle East, and Israeli crimes going back to 1900 or so, some 48 years before Israel. One man described how his family had to flee Cairo when it was bombed by Israel, a tale pretty much like the Germans bombing Pearl Harbor. They all drew a blank on attacks against Israelis, whether by official Arab armies or less official terrorists.
Comment from Glen
Time November 2, 2009 at 3:24 pm
Paul, you are quite right. We are on the same page. I did not talk about university training, but social ‘education.’ Education is not just something that happens in school. It is a function of socialization (which does include university training as well as newpaper cartoons). It informs the values and prejudices of any society. Such values are generally slow to change from one generation to the next. ‘Cultural lag.’ It seems reasonable that it may take several generations before these folks get up to speed. In the meantime it behooves us to be very, very careful with these people. And, of course the United States has similar problems (ask any European) but we tend to be somewhat less homicidal.
Comment from Glenn
Time November 2, 2009 at 3:32 pm
It remind me of my Russian friend that he told me that he was sort of brainwashed as well his own people during cold war view us American so different and he was shocked to see huge wrong when come in to study with us. That’s how people get brainwashed so bad as view Israel/Jewish so different.
I agree similar issues that my Russian friend said he like me but still not trust my own US government.
I wonder if they had make cartoon about Sunni and Shitte yet. That will be same issue as Fatah and Hamas. We learned to forgive war and killing between Catholic and protestant so long time ago and love each. We work hard to love each other after US civil war. We did admit our awful wrong action against American native and work with them. We now had British as our strong ally after war that we become American. We learned lot of mistakes from capitalism in early time make many laws to prevent bad thing again and still work as today. I wonder when will Middle east people learn to love each other as it still fight, hate, betrayed, open up insult and too closed mind.
Comment from Paul K
Time November 2, 2009 at 3:45 pm
Glen, I think the attitudes can change more quickly than you suggest. That is because they are stereotypes that have no actual basis in fact. If the Israelis and the Palestinians work out a 2 state arrangement, I suspect you will see dramatic shifts in attitude across the Arab world. Of course the Arab governments will find new enemies, but there is never a shortage of them to choose from 
Comment from Miriam
Time November 2, 2009 at 4:48 pm
Wonderful report back on your M/E trip, especially about Palestine…as I’d written you about a friend of mine who is a Gazan prize winning political cartoonist.. It was a sad commentary that you explained that no cartoon like the Egyptian cartoon would ever make it to the Front page of an American paper ‘because Americans..”aren’t interested in events that happen outside of America, especially when it is the same news story, year after year.” like this 60+ yr colonial Occupation…but there are thousands of folks who ARE interested and follow the shifts in coverage and content daily when/if there is any coverage in our media which is very limited or biased towards one side, generally. Your trip has been a fascinating departure from the norm –which means no mention nor communication with “the other” those living under military occupation., so thank you thank you Daryl . Here’s hoping that there is more of such cultural/political exchange in future. Our Friends in Gaza and WB NEED to be heard and we, Americans have much to learn from them and their narrative. Peace, Miriam
Comment from janet
Time November 2, 2009 at 4:50 pm
The reason the described cartoons would be seen as antisemitic is because they are intended to be. They are of the variety used by the Nazis and Jew haters through history. Generations of children have been raised to blame Israel, not their own corrupt regimes and self serving leader for their woes the way the KKK demonized blacks 9and Catholics at one time). it is in their books and culture. The reason there are not many cartoonists not critical of Israel is out of fear; Israelis, Americans and modern Europeans all feel free to criticize their own leadership, not so in the Islamist countries, and Islam may not be depicting unflatteringly in Europe without repercussions and death threats, yet you are concerned these cartoonists hate mongering cartoons would draw objection here….There certainly is a double standard. Israel has been under attack by neighboring countries that want in destroyed, and do not want to live with Jews in their midst, or at all. Try drawing cartoons making fun or drawing attention to Hamas using children and women as shields or encouraging children to commit mass murder. Or, point fun at commandeering ambulances for missions of violence, necessitating their quick passages to hospitals in Israel (where Palestinians prefer to get treated if they can afford it, as I understand) and get these published in newspapers in Islamic states. Hey, bring them on your next visit and try it in person. i suspect they will do more than make the publishers jaw drop.
Comment from Miriam
Time November 2, 2009 at 5:21 pm
Janet ….your comments read like a text straight out of the Hasbara playbook….nearly word for word…same old tired nonsense….reflects the sad fact that folks like you exist in an echo chamber …repeating like mantras what you are told instead of reading, thinking for yourself. Try thinking outside of the hasbara box for a few minutes each month….you may actually start to reflect reality instead of propaganda ! Your stereotyping is worn thin and transparently demonstrates your ignorance. Go visit Palestine and see the reality for yourself. No that would take a willing spirit open to truth and justice and obvioiusly you dont have an interest….shonda…
Comment from Jane Burkouse
Time November 2, 2009 at 6:11 pm
I have a simple way to solve misunderstanding of Islam problem. Nuke all of Islam. It is apparent that the ffollowers of M have one and only one goal in mind. The destruction of the USA and everyone lliving in the USA.
Death to all Muslim.
Comment from Gary Katz
Time November 2, 2009 at 8:15 pm
Carl Marx once said \"Religion is the opium of the people (corrected from common misquotes).\" Based on your experiences, I would say, \"Hatred of Israel is the opiate of the Muslims.\"
Comment from JimG
Time November 2, 2009 at 9:50 pm
I give Ron Cagle props for pointing out some of the stumbling blocks for Arab cartoonists getting their message across to non-Islamic peoples. They really need to grow up and stop drawing hateful, childish, outdated caricatures of Jews and Americans to make their points. Poking fun is one thing, but using the art of cartooning to spread murderous emotions in a tinderbox of a brainwashed bloodthirsty Madrassa “educated” population is quite another.
There may very well be a Supreme Being. I have no problem with that point of view. It could be true! That’s OK with me. Yet Earthly man-created religion is the problem, and it never will be the solution for our conflicts. Ever. It will never cease to divide people. Think about this: If you were the Supreme Being, creator of not only all sorts of living creatures all over the seemingly infinite universe, but atoms, quarks, quasars, cosmic gas, comets, planets, black holes and galaxies, would you give a fig about whether someone on one, just one, of all the gazillions of inhabitable worlds, is a Shiite, Sunni, Jew, Christian, Buddhist, Muslim, or even atheist? Does any clear thinking person seriously believe there may be Christians or Muslims on some planet on the edge of Andromeda? Give that idea some real thought beyond a superficial knee-jerk response, that is if you are a sober thinking individual who believes in common sense rather than fantasy. I know one thing: if I was that Being, I would ask all the aforementioned parties to kindly cease their divisive nonsense, wake up to reality, and take care of each other, and learn to live together, because our human lives are so limited and short. Take care of each other first, love your neighbor, then we can get around to whether there is or isn’t a Supreme Being, God, Allah, Goddess, or whatever. Then the knowledge of a Supreme Being would be the icing on a fantastic cake, instead of grist for endless conflicts.
That said, I have read Muslim cartoons and I think 99% of them are repugnant to the extreme, in spite of the plight of the Palestinians and the oppression of them by Israelis who just want to have a normal day without getting blown to bits by some brainwashed nutcase. I understand that the Radical Islamic editors are to blame, and moderate viewpoints are not allowed to be published, but the net result is that whenever I feel sympathy for these people I then read some of their cartoonist’s views and then I feel like a total sucker. And I am not Jewish!
Comment from janet
Time November 2, 2009 at 9:59 pm
Miriam, thanks for your input, i will have to check out Hasbara. It\’s encouraging to learn there is a group, or website, or whatever Hasbara is, as I often feel like i am swimming against a tide of close friends who are social activists who claim to be for the rights of Palestinians. They believe that supporting leaders and movements who condone censorship, hatred and bigotry and violence, if done in the name of Islam is justified and culturally sensitive, I think it is incredibly arrogant to assume this is what \"they\" want, while ignoring what \’they\" say, and the impact it has on Palestinians who are sick of having any attempt for peace sabotaged by forces whose non-hidden agenda is the destruction of Israel. When people who claim to be for peace and justice defend Hamas, criticize Israel\’s defense of its people, and ignore ethnic cleansing and slave trading in the Sudan they are not representing nor striving for either ideal, they are indeed regurgitating propaganda from literally well oiled sources who use the Palestinians as pawns. Thanks again, I do need the encouragement, and would love to travel to any country where I can speak my mind freely without fear of imprisonment for my opinions but cannot afford it. You seem to have a tendency to prejudge a person you have never met. I would suggest you follow the advice you offered me, and perhaps consider seeking out new sources of information, not just opinions.
Comment from Richard Silverstein
Time November 2, 2009 at 11:12 pm
I write a blog about the Israeli Arab conflict & desperately seek cartoons to illustrate some of my work. I’ve looked through yr own work Mr. Cagle & have found barely any dealing with the conflict, an absence which I’ve found disappointing. There is an audience out there for such work but it isn’t the same audience looking for titillation about Janet Jackson’s boob.
The same is true for U.S. media in general which doesn’t like touching this topic (except for a few exceptions).
Comment from Cathy Lester
Time November 3, 2009 at 12:12 am
Daryl, it makes me sad that you could go to a place where people are suffering real oppression every day and not be more aware of their circumstances. Imagine a situation where your livelihood was denied you and your kids were malnourished and you never knew when the Israelis would decide to take out a member of Hamas and get you or one of your loved ones instead… and you tell them to draw cartoons about puppies. Wake up.
Comment from Kathlyn Stone
Time November 3, 2009 at 7:16 am
Thanks for the great trip report! It was nice to hear what cartoonists in the Middle East have to say about their work and challenges.
I have to disagree with the statement that Americans only want to see cartoons about boobs and puppies. Sure, some are drawn to that type of cartoon but look at the people that read and comment on your site.
If the media, including political cartoonists, would stop pandering to the shallowest Americans we\’d have a much better chance of elevating awareness.
Comment from Vivian Flamm
Time November 3, 2009 at 8:16 am
Looks like these Palestinians feel pretty sorry for themselves.
Comment from Charlie
Time November 3, 2009 at 8:24 am
Miriam, you are stating your leftist lines without thinking. And you have the nerve to accuse janet of not thinkng.
I’ll bet you think that returning to 67 borders will bring peace.
Comment from Mira Nabulsi
Time November 3, 2009 at 8:37 am
first of all I don’t think that meeting with cartoonists for half an hour would be good enough to make a realistic opinion or even call it an experience with Palestinian or Egyptian cartoonists. I have myself a friend who is a cartoonist in the West Bank who tells me Cagle met them for like half an hour, and so just coz he happened to meet few people (and it seems to me those in Egypt were from mainstream media) doesn’t mean those you met represent the whole spectrum of political cartoons, to be able to understand media and journalism and specifically cartoons in a country you have to have a little knowledge about the history, politics and culture of that country and especially the social and political taboos and its just silly to think that your stereotypical “knowledge” is sufficient to understand the work of those people, you might say these Egyptian cartoonists are ignorant and superficial but a good question would be why is it easy for those to criticize Israel but not the regime even with the country’s armies of unemployed and illiterate ?
as for Palestine, I have to say that in the last 2 years I have seen as many cartoons criticizing the internal divisions between Hamas & Fateh or ones featuring economic and political hardships just as much as those criticizing Israel, if not more.. hence, you have to realize that just at the beginning of this year more than 1400 people were massacred by “the democratic” state of Israel, Gaza lives under siege for more than two years now, many people still live in tents after the offensive and even building materials were not allowed not to talk about the severe scarcity of water and nutrition, in similar circumstances what do you expect people to draw about? does it matter to them that American media won’t like such cartoons? or are you suggesting they should edit them in a way to fit in? such a patronizing tone !!
haven’t you noticed the numerous checkpoints one has to go through to travel around the West Bank or did the American embassy accompany you with their special cars that can travel through “Israelis only” roads? if standing for 2 hours under the sun or heavy rain -to be allowed to simply go to your work- was ur daily routine maybe then u will realize why cartoonists creativity in portraying Israel as a monster will never be exhausted ..
for Cagle drawing cartoons might be a passion and a nice way to make good money but for many in this part of the world it might be life-threatening !
Comment from Charlie
Time November 3, 2009 at 8:51 am
Miriam -
Can’t you see the difficulties of dealing with people like Mira??
He writes: ” beginning of this year more than 1400 people were massacred by “the democratic” state of Israel”. Sure, he’s reasonable and logical. And this is write out of the hasbara book — Which democratic state in the Middle East should we admire? The one in Libya, Egypt, Algeria, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Syria, Iran. Please tell me which government you praise. Even the wonderful Jordan has a king who was the son/grandson/greatgrandson of a king.
Comment from Nate O
Time November 3, 2009 at 10:49 am
There is an audience for intelligent cartoon commentary on the Israel/Palestine conflict. It might be smaller than those looking for the biggest pop culture trends of the day, but it is more persistent.
Comment from Servant
Time November 3, 2009 at 12:00 pm
Daryl,
Ignorance is no excuse. For you or your audience. You really ought to know better.
Perhaps you are unaware that Israel was created using the same ethnic cleansing techniques over which the U.S. recently went to war with Serbia and for which war crimes tribunals are currently taking place. If you have any doubts about that, please take some time to read Professor Ilan Pappe’s book, _The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine_. It will open your eyes to what happened in the years leading up to 1948 when the ethnic cleansing was planned by proto-Israel and it will open your eyes about the ongoing ethnic cleansing that is going on at this very moment.
It was very nice of you to educate your fellow cartoonists about the American free market system of ideas - that we only sell what people buy - but it is embarrassing to be an American when I hear you recommend catering to American media to a people who are in the middle of a on-going siege and who are experience every day the injustice which is the root cause of almost every story in the newspaper today about American foreign policy.
You are the one who needs an education in this subject, Daryl. Shame on you.
Comment from R.Sutcliffe
Time November 3, 2009 at 4:06 pm
Wow Daryl! A whole half hour with some Gazans over the phone. What deep insights you bring back from such mysterious lands. Perhaps you traded some beads and mirrors for skins? And how nice of you to dispense your vast American insights onto their daily lives. We really need Americans lecturing on Middle East peace more, that’s what I say! Silly Gazans always complaining about Israel! By the way are they letting pens into Gaza again? They have been banned for quite some time now. Obviously those Egyptians are all anti-Semites as well. Of course you can’t criticise Israel using imagery from their flag, preposterous barbarians!
P.S. How come you only met with the Gazans via teleconference?
Perhaps once you have finished painting these people as anti-semitic barbarians with pointless fixations of persecution you could grow a pair and actually go to Gaza.
Comment from janet
Time November 6, 2009 at 5:10 am
Servant\’s mistaken claims about ethnic cleansing: there is no effort or desire by Israel\’s government to wipe out Palestinians, or they would not have a longer life expectancy there than those living in the neighboring countries. The refugee camps are the result of those countries refusing citizenship to them (the Jordanians never made the West Bankers citizens, Arabs in Israel are, and they are not forced to convert, nor given the status of dhimi, as occurs to non-Muslims in many of those countries). Ethnic cleansing is what is happening in Darfur, where people are being slaughtered, raped and their villiages burned; not because they are harboring terrorists but for ethnic cleansing. Recognition that israel has the right to exist, and stopping of attempts to wipe out its people is the only way that peace should come there. Destruction of Israel still would not bring peace to that region, historically speaking.
Comment from Susan
Time November 8, 2009 at 8:31 pm
Yes, Israel is a democracy.
But only if you\’re Jewish.
Comment from Tom Richmond
Time November 1, 2009 at 7:27 am
Wow, Daryl. What an experience. Thanks for sharing it with us.