In February 2017, a month after Donald Trump was sworn into office, the Washington Post proudly announced a change in its online masthead, with it reading “Democracy dies in darkness.”
These days, democracy is dying in anti-Semitism thanks to the Post‘s cowardly decision to yank a cartoon done by Las Vegas Journal-Review cartoonist Michael Ramirez, which was originally published Monday, because it sparked an outcry among triggered anti-Israel staffers, readers, and other assorted Useful Idiots who claimed it was “racist” and allegedly unfairly put the lion’s share of the blame for civilian deaths in Gaza on Hamas terrorists and not Israel.
In a note to readers, editorial page editor David Shipley wrote about his “regret” over his decision to publish the cartoon, claiming the paper missed an opportunity to find “commonalities” and “bonds that hold us together”:
A cartoon we published by Michael Ramirez on the war in Gaza, a cartoon whose publication I approved, was seen by many readers as racist. This was not my intent. I saw the drawing as a caricature of a specific individual, the Hamas spokesperson who celebrated the attacks on unarmed civilians in Israel.However, the reaction to the image convinced me that I had missed something profound, and divisive, and I regret that. Our section is aimed at finding commonalities, understanding the bonds that hold us together, even in the darkest times.
The Hamas spokesperson in question was Hamas official Ghazi Hamad, who has explicitly stated that Hamas won’t rest until Israel is “annihilated,” and that they will commit many more October 7ths to get the job done if necessary.
It should be noted that the cartoon depiction of Hamad and Hamad himself look strikingly similar:
Despite that inconvenient fact, among the complaints from some of the Post‘s readers was how the cartoon allegedly exaggerated Hamad’s features:
The caricatures employ racial stereotypes that were offensive and disturbing. Depicting Arabs with exaggerated features and portraying women in derogatory, stereotypical roles perpetuates racism and gender bias, which is wholly unacceptable.
Staffers in the WaPo newsroom were also reassured by executive editor Sally Buzbee that their “deep concerns” about the cartoon were being recognized by Shipley:
Dear colleagues,Given the many deep concerns and conversations today in our newsroom, I wanted to ensure everyone saw the notes sent out tonight by The Post’s opinions editor, David Shipley, to Post readers and to his staff in opinions.My best, Sally
Leading the campaign to have the cartoon pulled (and Ramirez canceled in the process) was anti-Semitic self-described poet Remi Kanazi, a Palestinian-American who is a proponent of the anti-Semitic BDS movement and who once made a veiled call for the eradication of Jewish people:
“I don’t want to coexist. I want to exist as a human being. And justice will take care of the rest.”
Here’s what Kanazi wrote about the Ramirez Hamas cartoon:
In another tweet, he took issue with another “racist” Ramirez cartoon related to the same issue:
The Post was also called “Islamophobic” for running the Human Shields cartoon, and was accused of “racist dehumanization”:
Others suggested that not even Ramirez’s diverse heritage could save him from his alleged racism:
There were also calls to cancel the Ramirez and the editors involved in allowing the cartoon to get published:
Though the Post removed the Ramirez cartoon from their website, the one at the Las Vegas Review-Journal is still up as of this writing.
Also still up is Legal Insurrection‘s own version of Hamas Human Shields as drawn by A.F. Branco in 2014:
My .02 is that maybe these people should spend less time hyperventilating over a cartoon and more time condemning Hamas for hiding behind women and children in the first place. But that assumes they even disagree with the barbaric tactic, which is a rather generous assumption to make considering their obvious hate for Israel.
— Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym “Sister Toldjah” and can be reached via Twitter. —
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