The international edition of the New York Times will no longer feature editorial cartoons. The move to self-censorship follows the uproar sparked by publication of a widely denounced antisemitic caricature of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The cartoon, published in April, depicted Netanyahu as a dog wearing a Star of David collar and leading a sightless U.S. President Donald Trump — who was wearing a Jewish skullcap.
The offensive piece was drawn by Portuguese artist António Moreira Antunesas and published during the Passover holiday.
The cartoon prompted an uproar within the Jewish community and sparked protests outside the Times’ office in New York City, with Israel’s ambassador to the U.N. likening it to the content of Nazi propaganda newspaper Der Sturmer.
Blaming its publication on “a production editor who did not recognize its anti-Semitism,” the paper was eventually forced into a backdown:
An Editors’ Note to appear in Monday’s international edition. pic.twitter.com/1rl2vXoTB3
— New York Times Opinion (@nytopinion) April 27, 2019
Now it has moved beyond apology to giving up altogether on the notion of publishing editorial cartoons.
Editor James Bennet explained the paper had planned for a year to cease running political cartoons in the international print version of the Times, in line with the U.S. edition.
The decision will come into effect on July 1, Bennet said in a Monday statement.
New York Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger announced in May that the editor who published the original cartoon would be disciplined.
AFP contributed to this story
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