Wiesenthal Center Denounces Washington Post Cartoon Showing Israel Leader Repeatedly Punching an Infant

July 14, 2014

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is denouncing an animated cartoon on the Washington Post's You Tube channel depicting Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu repeatedly pounding a baby in the face. The cartoon, titled "Israel pounds Hamas targets", was produced by Ann Telnaes, an editorial cartoonist for the Post's Opinion page. (see screen capture below).

"It is disgusting that the Washington Post would present an animated cartoon that is so profoundly removed from the truth," said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Wiesenthal Center. "Millions of Israeli citizens—men, women, and children—have been forced into bomb shelters and saferooms by thousands of missiles and rockets targeted at them by Hamas terrorists, whose open and avowed goal is the destruction of the Jewish state," he continued.

"Even Israel's enemies have recognized that Israel's military countermeasures against Hamas have included phone and text warnings as well as leaflets urging innocent civilians in Gaza to vacate the targeted areas," Cooper said. "It is the Hamas leadership that openly uses the people of Gaza to act as human shields to protect their weapons of mass destruction," he added.

"Israelis are saddened by the deaths of four Palestinian children on a Gaza beach yesterday, but the blood of these innocent children is on the hands of Hamas leaders, not Benjamin Netanyahu," Rabbi Cooper also said.

"While we regard Telnaes' right to free speech, it would be important that the Washington Post make it clear that this disgusting animation doesn't represent their views," Cooper concluded.

For more information, please contact the Center's Public Relations Department, 310-553-9036, join the Center on Facebook, www.facebook.com/simonwiesenthalcenter, or follow @simonwiesenthal for news updates sent direct to your Twitter page or mobile device.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the United States. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the OAS, the Council of Europe and the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino).