Mr Bell will work on the paper until April 2024.
A political cartoonist who worked for The Guardian claimed for more than 40 years that he was fired for drawing a cartoon of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu because the organization thought it was “anti-Semitic,” The Telegraph reported.
Steve Bell’s cartoon depicted Benjamin Netanyahu wearing boxing gloves and holding a scalpel over a map of the Gaza Strip. The cartoon featured a quote that read: “Gaza residents, leave now.” This referred to Israel urging residents to evacuate the northern Gaza Strip ahead of an expected ground offensive against Hamas.
Critics said the images were similar to those of Shylock, Shakespeare’s hostile Jewish moneylender The merchant from Venice who insists on the ‘pound of flesh’ he is owed.
Mr Bell, who worked at the newspaper for 42 years, said the decision was “a bit of a shock”. He said he submitted the cartoon Monday morning and was rejected by editors four hours later. Evening standard reported.
A Guardian spokesperson said: ‘The decision has been made not to renew Steve Bell’s contract. Steve Bell’s cartoons have been a staple of The Guardian for the past forty years. We thank him and wish him all the best.”
However, Mr Bell defended the image, saying it was a reference to a 1960s cartoon of then US President Lyndon B. Johnson showing a scar on his torso in the shape of the map of Vietnam. He further claimed that it was ‘impossible to imagine this subject’ The guard now without being falsely accused of using ‘anti-Semitic tropes’.
‘The Guardian has every right not to publish my cartoon if it wishes, but it must not do so on entirely contrived and false reasons. “All that does is hinder the discussion on a terrible but important topic,” he added.
Mr Bell will work on the paper until April 2024.
The Hamas group shot, stabbed and burned more than 1,300 people in the attack that Israel carried out compared to 9/11 in the US, sparking a massive retaliatory bombing campaign targeting the group that killed more than 2,200 people in Gaza. About 1.1 million people live in northern Gaza, and aid groups have said it is impossible to force them to move as the war rages and supplies of food, fuel and medicine run low.
