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Action Alert: Anti-Semitic Cartoons Published in Toronto Arabic Newspaper

By publishing anti-Semitic blood libel cartoons and in lauding Palestinian terror, a Toronto-area Arabic newspaper is deserving of opprobrium. Take action now.

A Toronto-area Arabic newspaper called Meshwar recently on November 30 published an anti-Semitic cartoon depicting Israelis eating Palestinian children and drinking their blood. Other cartoons caricatured the stereotypical trope of hook-nosed, menacing Jews.

According to Shalom Toronto’s Jonathan Halevi (see full article below), Meshwar expressed support for outlawed Palestinian terrorist organizations like Hamas and called on Palestinians to thank Iran, Syria and Hezbollah for weapons used to bomb Israeli cities in the recent conflict.

This is the same Arabic newspaper that in June published poetry praising Palestinian terrorists. Meshwar is distributed throughout the Greater Toronto Area (Scarborough, Mississauga, Markham, Toronto, etc.) and is estimated at having a circulation of 10,000 copies.

Publishing anti-Semitic blood libel cartoons and lauding Palestinian terror against innocent Israeli civilians is an affront to core Canadian values of tolerance and mutual respect. There is no place for this kind of “journalism” in the Canadian news industry. Exposing extremist commentary to scrutiny and to the light of day is the best sanitizer for this kind of repugnant content.

HonestReporting Canada (HRC) calls on all our subscribers to contact this paper’s “editor” to express outrage over the publication of these anti-Semitic cartoons and of this newspaper’s avowed support for Palestinian terror. HRC also calls on this newspaper to apologize for publishing this disgraceful anti-Semitic content. Please send your comments to Meshwar editor Dr. Nazia Khatatba at meshwarmedia@hotmail.com and/or call (416) 302-7664

If you come across this publication,

  • DO take the newspaper up to the clerk or business owner, open it to the appropriate page and say "this is anti-Semitic and shameful," and walk away.
  • DO NOT damage the newspaper in any way (damaging property is illegal) and DO NOT tell the owner to remove the magazine from the store's shelves (while this material does not likely breach Canada's hate laws, Canadians have the right to call it anti-Semitic and reprehensible). Sunlight, after all, is the best disinfectant.

  • TorJohn

    That is really not an acceptable response from the Gazette. The statement acknowledging their “error” should have been published by the paper with the editor’s name affixed.

    • Jackie

      It was the Toronto Star, althugh I admit that the Gazette, like most Quebec newspapers, has more than its share of antisemitism. That’s the reason so many Jews moved from Quebec to Ontario.

      • TorJohn

        It was the Gazette that published the misleading photo. Somehow the comments here are a mixture between two different stories.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Alan-Winters/1160319145 Alan Winters

    Their overt anti-Semitism may be corrected with a watered down, whitewashed semi-apology. But, don’t count on it. Ignorance and bias go hand in hand and these habits are hard to change especially since most non-Jews are jealous of the Jews.

  • Jack Shore

    What kind of a newspaper carelessly misleads its readers, acknowledges same and then fails to print a correction? Montreal Gazette subscribers who are supporters of Israel should be complaining in droves and threatening to cancel their subscriptions unless the Gazette takes a more responsible journalistic stance.

  • Mickey Oberman

    It always amazes me how often ‘poor editing’ escapes the notice of the piblishers of Quebec’s newspapers.
    After the damage is done a tiny retraction may or may not be published.
    The perpetrators of these ‘unintentional’ anti Israel falsehoods should be obliged to print their retractions and apologies in as many column inches as was occupied by the lies and on the same page.

  • One diva

    I want a retraction!!!!!! The media is in no small way responsible for misinformation which poorly educated, or small minded .indoviduals read and then take as fact! How in hell is peace ever to be accomplished when SO MANY outsiders who have NOTHING INVESTED yet have power to influence public opinion continue to misrepresent and twist events ????? This is a rag of a publication and needs to be called out!

  • Jackie

    The Toronto Star has long been noted for its antisemitic stance. It became so agravating that thetwo Jewish funeral homes in Toronto publish obituaries in The National Post, rather than the Star.

  • http://www.facebook.com/dlondynski E Damián Londynski

    Did you notice that their correction states: “Israel’s seat of government is in Jerusalem”? It seems that the Toronto Star purposely avoided stating that Israel’s capital is in Jerusalem. I remember that the BBC has done the same thing back at the time of the London Olympics.