Fairfax sorry for cartoon

THE Sydney Morning Herald apologised for a Glen Le Lievre cartoon, which many in the Jewish community branded anti-Semitic and led to a wave of subscribers and some advertisers severing ties with the news outlet.

SMH editor-in-chief Darren Goodsir said the cartoon, which showed a hook-nosed man wearing a kippah and sitting in a lounge chair with a Star of David emblazoned on it, while using a remote control to bomb Gaza, was a “serious error of judgement” on his Twitter page and the newspaper apologised in an editorial on Monday.

“We apologise unreservedly for this lapse, and the anguish and distress that has been caused.”

The cartoon was described as “anti-Semitic” by Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) and was the focus of a front page editorial in last week’s AJN.

In Goodsir’s mea culpa he explained there was no intent to racially vilify or upset readers, but that on reflection the paper made a serious error of judgement when using the Star of David and kippah.

“The Herald deeply regretted the upset the image had caused, but felt – not least because the cartoonist lacked any intent and that actual photographs influenced the setting and physical depiction of the character in the cartoon – that no racial vilification had occurred,” the editorial said.

It stated that the newspaper accepts that this position was too simplistic and ignored the use of religious symbols.

“The Herald now appreciates that, in using the Star of David and the kippah in the cartoon, the newspaper invoked an inappropriate element of religion, rather than nationhood, and made a serious error of judgement.

“It was wrong to publish the cartoon in its original form,” the SMH said in its editorial.

Goodsir told The AJN on Wednesday that it was an awful time for the world and emotions were very raw.

“I hope that people see this apology as a genuine attempt to repair their relations.”

The ECAJ and NSW Jewish Board of Deputies welcomed the apology.

“We believe that this matter has highlighted the need for deeper understanding in the wider community of the phenomenon of racism and, in particular, of anti-Jewish racism,” the joint statement said.

It stressed not every criticism of Israel is anti-Semitic, but that when criticism of Israel is couched in terms which employ or appeal to negative stereotypes of Jewish people generally, then the line has been crossed.

JOSHUA LEVI 

SMH editor-in-chief Darren Goodsir.