Thursday, January 24, 2008

Carlos Latuff , Hanging Rope

Israeli Star of David as a hanging rope
Israeli Star of David as a hanging rope
for the Palestinians conveys bluntly cartoonist Carlos Latuff’s opinion about Israel’s policy in the territories. His image reminds me of a similar image Israeli artist Dror Auslander used to show how Israelis strangle their foreign workers.
Another Star of Davids made from rope is on the
scouts stamp

Cartoonist Carlos Latuff uses the Star of David as an anti- Israeli tool. It is important to notice the difference between anti- Israeli (or anti-Zionist) and anti-Semitic usages. Latuff is a fine example for the first category.
It is to his credit that
  1. He made in 2004 a series of seven cartoons showing Arabs and Jews in reconciliation
  2. on his websites he allows everybody to reproduce and forward all his artworks.

    P.S.
    Mr. Latuff read this post and commented:

    Dear sir,

    Checking your post about one of my cartoons with the Star of
    David depicted as a hanging rope, I'd like to highlight
    something. As you stated in the same post, my artworks and
    struggle have more to do with anti-Zionism than
    anti-Semitism, and the usage of Star of David in my cartoons
    have no religious reasons. My detractors usually acuse me of
    anti-Semitism for using the Star. The point is that the
    State of Israel have religious motifs as national symbols
    (Star of David for the flag, the Menorah for the official
    seal), and even combat jets and tanks  have the Star of David on it (putting a religious symbol in such war machines sounds like a desecration for me). It's
    like to be called anti-Muslim for making a Turkish tank with
    the Star and Crescent, since this religious motif is used in
    the Turkey's national flag.

    Best regards,

    Latuff

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

However, Latuff has not been cleared of another accusation of anti-Semitism. The one related to his participation in the Iranian anti-Semitic (oh, I'm sorry, Holocaust-denial cartoon) competition. Some of the exemplars there are clearly anti-Semitic however one can try and cut it. Not Latuff's own, but ... participation in it, clearly has a whiff of anti-Semitism.