Holocaust cartoon winner

[jawnbc]

Remember that contest that an Iranian newspaper sponsored, in response to the Danish Mohammed cartoon contest?

Well you can several of those selected here (plus a Leunig). But here's the winner:



And here's the artist's statement:

"I want to express my total heartfelt sympathy with the millions of Jewish victims of the Holocaust who suffered the greatest crime against humanity under the Nazis. Nobody can deny that more than six million people were massacred during the second world war by the devil Hitler and his Nazi henchmen. But the question for me and for so many others is why the Palestinian people have suffered from so much pain, and massacres, and why they continue to suffer in the current situation.

As a citizen of Morocco it is my deepest conviction that Jews are my brothers; Jews have lived with us in peace and tolerance as fellow citizens in Morocco for 2000 years. I remember that in World War II, Morocco did not cooperate with the Vichy government of France when the King of Morocco stood up to the German demands and refused to send thousands of Moroccan Jews to the German concentration camps. I am proud of Morocco for taking this noble stand. I am proud of Morocco which has been and will be tomorrow, a place of tolerance between Jews and Muslims, who will live here together like brothers."

Pretty impressive stuff. Most of it, anyway.

[pinched from here. thanks to the ever-wonderful siobhan63]

Comments

[mikeybill.livejournal.com]

Interesting statement. If I recall rightly the Turkish consul in Marseilles saved some kids by pulling down his pants and showing his cut cock to people rounding up some jewish boys and said "They're not Jewish, they're Muslim like me"

There was a really interesting article in the Economist about the how the Jewish diaspora sees Israel today, and how that has changed, asking similar questions to those above.

[mhkrabat.livejournal.com]

The comic shown (as you no doubt know) is not offensive, at least to me who boasts some heritage that could have landed me in one of those camps. It is loaded with excellent irony however.

[jawnbc]

I was referring to some of the other cartoons...

[feygele.livejournal.com]

Associating Israel with Holocaust, as the start of the Palestinians v. Jews/Israelis conflict is so problematic. It ignores hundreds of years of history on both sides of the argument, histories which play very relevant roles, I think, in the solution. I recently watched an interview with Edward Said, which concluded with him saying that had the Holocaust not happened, Israel wouldn't have been formed, and there would not be anti-Semitism today. It worries me greatly that academics such as Said, he are supposed to be authorities on this conflict, can make such horrifically wrong statements.

(Sorry, this is all kinda off topic of your post. Maybe I should just post something myself. And tell people to watch the recent PBS documentary on the rise of anti-Semitism in the 21st century.)

[jawnbc]

I saw that. Very interesting, I had never heard of those canonical texts.

But I agree with Said: I don't think the UN would have agreed to the creation of Israel at that time were it not for the Holocaust.

[feygele.livejournal.com]

I agree, the UN wouldn't have at that time: the UN was founded in 1945. The League of Nations discussed establishing a Jewish nation; the only reason they didn't was that the Jews didn't want the various lands offered up (in South America and in Siberia, for example (and note that those two areas were note approved of by Argentina or the USSR, whose land would have been used to establish it)). But the establishment of the UN, the end of WW2, and the years and years of British promises to establish a Jewish nation there, promises which started well before WW2, all came to a head in 1945.

[jawnbc]

OK, change UN to "international community". But the Holocaust was integral to the timing.

[jawnbc]

that should be "in my opinion.."
sorry

[feygele.livejournal.com]

Perhaps, but I still don't think it's that black and white. I mean, the "international community," while perhaps not as explicitly, actively anti-Semitic as Germany had proven to be, was guilty of closing doors to Jews who tried to immigrate from Europe to avoid persecution. In many ways, creating Israel after the war meant not only a safe haven (in theory) for Jews, but that the international community wouldn't have to deal with Jews in their own countries.