Portuguese cartoonist publishes antisemitic political cartoon

By HANNAH HEPNER
THE QUESTIONABLE cartoon in ‘The New York Times.’ (photo credit: SETH J. FRANTZMAN)
THE QUESTIONABLE cartoon in ‘The New York Times.’
(photo credit: SETH J. FRANTZMAN)
Portuguese cartoon artist Vasco Gargalo has been criticized for creating an antisemitic political cartoon that was published in the weekly Portuguese news magazine Sábado.
Media reports were disseminated last week showing Gargalo’s cartoon, which depicts Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wearing an armband like that of the Nazis but with a Star of David rather than a swastika on it.
In the image, Netanyahu is pushing a coffin draped in a Palestinian Authority flag into an oven. Above the oven is the infamous gate of Auschwitz with the German phrase “Arbeit macht frei,” meaning “work sets you free.”
The cartoon, which was created on November 15, 2019, and is titled “The Crematorium,” sparked debate after its publication in Sábado.

The right-wing Btsalmo (In His Image), an Israel-based human-rights organization, has written a formal complaint to the editor of Sábado, demanding that Gargalo be dismissed, that it remove all copies of the cartoon and that it issue a public apology.
Also in the letter, Btsalmo CEO Shai Glick said according to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism, the cartoon qualifies as both Holocaust denial and Holocaust minimization.
Glick sent a copy of his letter to the Portuguese prime minister, Netanyahu, Portugal’s ambassador to Israel, Israel’s ambassador to Portugal, Israel’s foreign minister and the editor of Sábado, among others.


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