CNN is under fire for publishing an antisemitic blood libel cartoon that depicted Jews celebrating Passover in a dining room surrounded by cement walls outside of which is a sea of blood leaking into the room through the floor.
The cartoon was part of a CNN article titled “As Israel bans Palestinian flags, one artist protests with his brush.” It centered around a cartoonist who was speaking against National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir.
The story, written by CNN’s Abeer Salman, included a cartoon by the cartoonist, Tel Aviv-based Michael Rozanov, who uses the name “Mysh,” which depicted the scene making use of antisemitic tropes.
A bubble text in Hebrew in the cartoon says "We are free people as the dining room is protected from most of the sea of blood by cement walls.
The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA) slammed CNN for unnecessarily publishing a cartoon using antisemitic tropes.
"If CNN needs to flirt with antisemitic tropes in order to report on controversial Israeli minister Itamar Ben Gvir, what does that say about the network?" CAMERA analyst David Litman told Fox News.
"Salman seemed to go out of her way to not just include ahistorical swipes at the Jewish state, but also – in borrowing from centuries of antisemitic blood libels – associate the holiday of Passover with Jews benefiting from the shedding of blood of non-Jews."
Writing on CAMERA’s website, Litman also questioned why CNN and Salman did not limit their story to publishing the feature on the far left cartoonist. But instead, they felt the need to include “a cartoon recalling multiple antisemitic themes, as well as unchallenged, ahistorical commentary depicting Israelis as needlessly cruel.”
He added that “of all Mysh’s other cartoons, Salman chose to highlight one that depicts a Jewish family celebrating Passover, surrounded by a sea of blood. The imagery echoes multiple antisemitic themes and conspiracy theories. For one, it flirts with the ancient blood libel that Jews use the blood of non-Jews during Passover to bake matzah. For another, it plays on themes of Jews accruing benefits at the expense of the blood and freedom of others."
Litman pondered about “giving Mysh the benefit of the doubt, that perhaps his work is simply being misinterpreted” but noted that “becomes less tenable the more one investigates the rest of his work, however. And while Salman included background on Mysh in her story, she seems to have been curiously incurious about glancing through his easily accessible and publicly available portfolio of cartoons.”