Sometimes, one picture is worth a thousand words. But pictures are subject to multiple interpretations, and so it seems that on certain topics when we run a picture we need to add explanatory words as well. Last week we ran a cartoon by our editorial car toonist which depicted the wall which Israel is currently erecting in Palestinian territory. It was identified as such by having the flag of Israel superimposed on it: a six-pointed star with bars above and below. A sign was tacked to the wall: “Condemned by the International Court of Justice.” It was a simple graphic representation of an actual current event which has been reported in many papers. But for a few readers (not many, thank goodness) there was something about the cartoon which seemed to imply hostility to Jewish people in general (what is commonly called anti-Semitism) rather than criticism of the policies of the current government of Israel. One caller left a message identifying himself as a Marin County lawyer, and said that he had been planning to run a weekly ad in the Daily Planet, but that he had decided not to because of the paper’s “anti-Semitism.” (Excuse me, but I don’t really believe he’d planned the ad, sorry.) A woman called after hours, hoping to leave a voice mail message, but I picked up the phone. She said that she thought the use of a religious symbol like the star was anti-Semitism, and later called again to say that she was reporting the paper to the Anti-Defamation League. The problem, which we’ve explained in this paper before, is that Israel chose to use a religious symbol on its national flag, but that doesn’t make the flag off-limits as a political symbol. The Union Jack, the British flag, incorporates a cross, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be used in political cartoons.
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