A cartoonist who lampooned Hamas terrorists over their use of children as human shields and was censored by The Washington Post reacted after the left-wing paper’s “unfortunate” canceling of his work.
Michael Ramirez, who works for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, has a collaborative agreement with the WaPo but the cartoon, titled “Human shields” was pulled after it was deemed to be offensive by “woke” whiners who have overwhelmingly sided with the Islamist savages who carried out acts of primitive barbarism in butchering Israeli civilians, including women, children and babies during last month’s sneak attack on the Jewish state.
The cartoon depicted the spokesperson for the Hamas terror organization with several small children strapped to him as a woman in a burka hides behind him and he says “How dare Israel attack civilians,” an image that drew the usual howls about “racism” and “Islamophobia” from the Jew-hating left.
The Washington Post deleted & apologized for this Michael Ramirez editorial cartoon.
Of course they did because:
1. it is accurate
2. the Jew-hating readers of the WaPo called the cartoon “racist,” “deeply malicious” & “full of bias & prejudice”
3. anti-Semitism = Leftism pic.twitter.com/A0LjCHjfSL— Michael Shermer (@michaelshermer) November 10, 2023
“I think it’s empirically true that Hamas uses civilians, both Palestinians and Israelis, as human shields,” the cartoonist told Fox News Digital on Friday.
“I don’t think it’s a hidden knowledge that they operate their bases in densely populated areas and under civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, they fire rockets from densely residential areas, and by design, to sacrifice the lives of the innocent people,” Ramirez said, pointing out the practice of the group to use civilians as cover.
The paper not only yanked the cartoon but issued a groveling apology to its overly sensitive readers.
We have deleted a tweet that linked to a cartoon we published Monday on the war in Gaza. We have also taken down the drawing from our site.
A note from David Shipley, Opinion Editor: https://t.co/HwAagLpGe2
— Washington Post Opinions (@PostOpinions) November 9, 2023
“A cartoon we published by Michael Ramirez on the war in Gaza, a cartoon whose publication I approved, was seen by many readers as racist. This was not my intent. I saw the drawing as a caricature of a specific individual, the Hamas spokesperson who celebrated the attacks on unarmed civilians in Israel,” read the apology from David Shipley, the paper’s opinion editor.
“However, the reaction to the image convinced me that I had missed something profound, and divisive, and I regret that. Our section is aimed at finding commonalities, understanding the bonds that hold us together, even in the darkest times,” Shipley said.
According to Fox News Digital, Shipley “handpicked the anti-Hamas cartoon after the cartoonist provided multiple options for him to choose from,” and Ramirez predicted the cartoon “would spark some sort of visceral reaction among some based on the current political climate but suggested those who claim to be advocating for innocent Palestinians ‘have a tendency to kind of erase the boundaries’ when it comes to Hamas,” the outlet reported.
“In this case, we both thought that was a bold cartoon,” Ramirez said, telling the outlet that Shipley “begged” him not to resign over the decision to censor the provocative work.
“He knew that I wasn’t happy with it… And he begged me not to quit,” he said. “And honestly, I thought about the consequences of that. If I quit, then the cancel culture people win because they basically exorcise the Washington Post of my cartoon, and I didn’t want to give them that luxury.”
“So I told David I would do two more cartoons for the Washington Post and just see how it goes and then reassess our relationship,” he added.
The artist said that he liked the editor and respected his efforts to “expand The Washington Post to accommodate a larger variety of views,” he said that the censorship of the mockery of Hamas was “unfortunate.”
“I think David resisted the idea of doing this initially. And he was very apologetic to me for doing this,” he said, adding that he’s glad the cartoon has led to a debate about the “systematic undermining of the freedom of speech.”
“I want an open debate. I think America is better, more extraordinary because of that,” Ramirez said.
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