The Washington Post has removed a cartoon depicting a Hamas leader putting civilians in the line of fire after numerous employees in the newsroom and readers complained that the drawing was racist.
The cartoon, created by artist Michael Ramirez, shows a Hamas leader with a large nose and a snarling mouth, holding four terrified children and a scared, veiled woman, accompanied by the phrase: "How dare Israel attack civilians?"
Before the cartoon was removed, several employees in the paper's newsroom expressed their concerns to senior editors, according to sources familiar with the matter. The cartoon also provoked a strong backlash from some readers who left comments on the newspaper's website.
Notable critics included Palestinian-American poet Remi Kanazi, who stated: "This is the Washington Post. This is the kind of anti-Palestinian racism that is acceptable for publication." British leftist activist Owen Jones commented, saying the cartoon is an example of the racial abstraction of humanity.
It is worth mentioning that artist Michael Ramirez is a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner for cartooning.
