Thursday, November 4, 2010

Was There an Anti-Semitic Cartoon in Dagens Nyheter?


On Monday of this week one of the editors of Dagens Nyheter (DN) decided that an installment of a popular comic strip, was to be removed from the newspaper. The reason: it had arguably anti-Semitic content.
The disputed comic strip, titled “Rocky”, featured a dialogue between two dogs, which blamed the ”Jews from Bonniers” (a leading Swedish based media and publishing house founded by German Jews) for love troubles in the dogs’ life. Culture editor at DN, Björn Wiman stated, regarding the strip that “unaware readers could have easily missed the cartoon's irony and instead interpreted the cartoon as containing a purely anti-Semitic message. “
While the strip might have been seen as controversial by some, most people argue that the comic strip, written by Martin Kellerman, was in fact mocking the current spate of anti-Semitic sentiments which have been seen, for example, in statements by Malmö's major Ilmar Reepalu and the human organs-trafficking article published in Aftonbladet by Donald Boström. 
Below is the deleted strip from DN and following is a translation from Swedish to English.

 1. Rocky: At least I work well when I am unhappily in love and miserable… I’m starting to think that it is the Jews at Bonnier which are behind the fact that every girl I fall for is mean, as this increases my productivity and hence their income.

2. It’s just a theory… I could be wrong… I am just throwing it out there as a base for an important debate.
…I am raising the question.
3. It cold be a coincidence…
4: Dog no 2: It could be your own fault.
Rocky: It could be my own fault but it leans towards the Jews…

Was the strip anti-Semtic? What do you think?

1 comment:

  1. A nietzschean comic strip: anti-anti-semitic

    Really funny

    ReplyDelete