Netanyahu
NetanyahuFlash 90

A German daily newspaper featured an anti-Semitic cartoon depicting Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu feeding peace doves a bottle of poison, reports the JTA.

The daily newspaper Stuttgarter Zeitung has since received letters of disapproval and protests, including one from the Israeli Embassy in Berlin.

The cartoon shows Netanyahu sitting down on a park bench and feeding a piece of bread laced with poison to peace doves. The bottle of poison is labeled “settlement construction.”

The cartoon makes reference to an anti-Nazi song from 1938 by Georg Kreisler called “Pigeon Poisoner.” Kreisler, an Austrian born Jew, wrote the song without any correlation to Israel.

A statement made by Kreisler’s daughter Sandra strongly deemed the cartoon as “anti-Semitic and wrong in content.” She added that her father never would have supported the view of the cartoonist, according to the German office of the American Jewish Committee.

Further clarifying that her father’s song was misused in context, she demanded an apology from the cartoonist and a published explanation from the newspaper that her father had ‘Israel-friendly views.’

“Whipping up strong animosity toward Israel damages Israeli attitudes toward Europe and ultimately harms [negotiations],” said Deidre Berger, director of AJC Berlin.

Accusations that the cartoon also represents content of the Nazi-era Der Stuermer and a myth that Jews used to poison the wells in Europe have made this to appear intentionally anti-Semitic.