'Nazi' cartoon causes uproar

2006-05-17 14:44

Rome - A cartoon published in an Italian communist newspaper, which compares Palestinian living conditions to Nazi death camps, has provoked the wrath of the Israeli ambassador and a dispute on the Italian left.

Ambassador Ehud Gold sent a letter to Liberazione, which the newspaper published on Tuesday, to denounce "the contempt for the Holocaust and the terrible insult to the memory of the victims".

The letter demanded an apology for the publication of the cartoons.

The incident has also created controversy because the newspaper is the vehicle of the Party of Communist Refoundation (PRC).

The PRC was led by the new president of the lower house of parliament, Fausto Bertinotti, until his election on May 6.

The cartoon was published last Friday.

It shows the gate of a death camp topped with the slogan "Hunger brings freedom" - an obvious allusion to the inscription "Work brings freedom" at the entrance to the Auschwitz Nazi death camp.

Cartoon is 'pro-Palestinian'

Lawmaker and journalist Furio Colombo, director of L'Unita - the daily paper of the ex-communist Democratic Left (DS) - said the cartoon was "offensive" and repeated "one of the worst cliches about Jews".

The PRC and the DS are both part of the leftist majority.

Italian newspapers gave a lot of coverage to the incident.

Members of Italy's Jewish community denounced what they called "a despicable comparison". They accused the far left of leading a "misinformation campaign" about the conflict in the Middle East.

The director of Liberazione, Piero Sansonetti, said the cartoon was "very polemic and pro-Palestinian" but it was not "anti-Semitic".

Bertinotti published a statement on Monday, judging it improper to implicate him in the affair.

The statement read: "But I think that in these difficult times for cultures and religions to live together we have to avoid all demonstrations, including satire, that could be perceived as offensive by the communities concerned."

- AFP