Spanish El Mundo attacked for cartoon of religious Jew with gun eyebrows

Spanish newspaper El Mundo was attacked by Jewish groups on Thursday for publishing an article with an illustrative cartoon that arranged Jewish symbols and guns in order to depict a religious Jew.

The cartoon Jew had a hanukkiah for mouth and nose, Stars of David for eyes, and pistols with suppressors for eyebrows. The cartoon headlined. El Mundo's February 17 article "The Hour of the Spies in the Gaza War" discussed Israeli intelligence failures and the role of spies in the Middle East.

Cartoon invokes 'age-old antisemitic tropes

The Spanish NGO Action and Communication on the Middle East (ACOM) said that the cartoon was an antisemitic design that advanced from depictions of Jews in the 1930s. The Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) said that the illustration "depicted Jews as sinister and violent."

El Mundo, a leading newspaper in Spain, featured an illustration in the article "The Hour of the Spies in the Gaza War" that depicted Jews as sinister and violent. Not only is invoking age-old antisemitic tropes irresponsible journalism, it’s also incredibly dangerous at a time… pic.twitter.com/8KTAb1gSty

— Combat Antisemitism Movement (@CombatASemitism) February 23, 2024

"Not only is invoking age-old antisemitic tropes irresponsible journalism, it is also incredibly dangerous at a time of rising antisemitism globally," said CAM.