Back in February, cartoonist Michael Leunig was caught in the middle of a hoax when one of his controversial cartoons was submitted to an Iranian newspaper competition seeking work about the Jewish Holocaust.
In response to the competition, a group of Israelis started their own competition – open to Jews only – and called for artwork. One of the organisers, Amitai Sandy, explained:
“We’ll show the world we can do the best, sharpest, most offensive Jew hating cartoons ever published! No Iranian will beat us on our home turf!”…
The whole enterprise was clearly tongue-in-cheek, an attempt to gross-out the Iranians. Some of the submissions are humorous, though probably in questionable taste. I recently discovered, however, that somebody had fraudulently submitted a work under my name (actually “Anthony Loewenstein.”)
This Leunig cartoon had been changed, and the Israeli flag placed in the middle of the image. In other words, the figures were goose-stepping to the Israeli flag. The website was made aware of the hoax and the image has now been removed.
It was yet another attempt at smearing me because of my criticisms of the official Middle East paradigm. Such deliberate tactics are both pathetic and counter-productive.