Iranian Holocaust Cartoons

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Iranian Holocaust Cartoons

• Roger Penn Barbara Rusch
• UCLA
• 2007

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Iranian Holocaust Cartoon Competition 2006

• Context the Danish cartoons about the prophet
  Mohammed ?100 deaths, death threats to the
  cartoonists and censorship of the images in
  Britain.
• The Iranian Government through the newspaper
  Hamshahri organized a holocaust cartoon
  competition as a response.
• These were displayed at the Museum of
  Contemporary Arts.
• Here are the winning three entries

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The Winner Dekaoui Abdellah Morocco 12,000
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Joint Second Prize A Chard France 4,000
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Joint Second Prize Carlos Latuff Brazil 4,000
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What Do these Cartoons Signify Sociologically?

• They are part of a wider visual discourse within
  Iran about Israel and Jews.
• The official Iranian Government newspaper Kayman
  ran cartoons about Israel throughout 2006.
• These cartoons are the data initially examined in
  this paper.

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Stage 1

• We interviewed Iranian students at Lancaster to
  translate the Farsi captions
• and to discover what they thought the cartoons
  meant.
• This they did very quickly and with ease.
• These images are well understood within Iranian
  society, especially since the 1979 Revolution.
• Here is what they said

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Cartoon 1

• A weapons inspector IAEA is standing inside
  the Star of David saying that we are not taking
  any sides!

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Cartoon 2

• The international weapons inspector is telling a
  stereotypical Jew that its crystal clear that
  they are merely planting cucumbers for export.
• immediately recognized by informants in terms
  of large nose, beard, black hat and long coat.

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Cartoon 3

• Israeli special forces shoot at their own
  shadows.
• Note the stereotypical big nose to typify a Jew.

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Cartoon 4

• A stereotypical Jew with a big nose ,black hat
  and coat plus a beard is trying to devour
  Palestine but cannot as he prepares to devour the
  world.

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Cartoon 5

• A stereotypical Jewish male hat, coat, beard and
  nose is saying Holocaust repeatedly over the
  television.
• His lies symbolized by the long nose a la
  Pinocchio pierce the global audience.

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Cartoon 6

• Jewish prisoners enter the Nazi gas chambers and
  exit as Terrorists.

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Cartoon 7

• A Jewish musician is shooting at a young
  Palestinian who is tied up defenceless.
• Two young Iranians are watching.
• The musician probably symbolizes the media in
  general.
• The music is a mask the trumpet faces the
  opposite way and disguises the killing that is
  taking place behind.

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Cartoon 8

• Farsi inscription means Holocaust Memorial.
• Fist standard symbol of victory. Built up of
  skulls which have broken a pen which signifies
  the distortion of the Holocaust in the media.
• The man unveiling the statue is Jewish big nose,
  beard, long black cloak and hat.

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Cartoon 9

• Cooking poor people in a Holocaust oven
  traditional Iranian style probably Palestinian
  scarf but not a child.
• Looks like a traditional Iranian baker but the
  side hair is characteristic of orthodox Jews.

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Cartoon 10

• A severed tongue has been turned into a net for
  trapping butterflies, with the title FREEDOM in
  English.
• The Jew holding the trap has a knife in his other
  hand possibly he severed the tongue and looks
  uncivilized, with full body hair.

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Cartoon 11

• The media are bending to the tune of the snake
  charmer who is Jewish big nose/hairy/black hat

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Cartoon 12

• The IAEA are sweeping nuclear weapons under the
  carpet which is in the style of the Israeli flag.
• Farsi inscription on the wall indicates that the
  MIDDLE EAST has been cleared of nuclear weapons.

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Cartoon 13

• The IAEA weapons inspectors are hurdling Israeli
  nuclear weapons as they escape from the Middle
  East.

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Cartoon 14

• This cartoon involves a play on the word Agence
  in Farsi which refers both to an Agency in
  this case the IAEA and to a taxi office.
• The Jew is in control of the car, not the IAEA.

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Cartoon 15

• A smiling Jew is destroying housing for the poor
  probably Palestinian, to the applause of two
  Jewish spectators.

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Cartoon 16

• A Jew gives succour to armed Israeli special
  forces wearing face masks.

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Cartoon 17Read from Right to Left

• An orthodox Jew is transformed into a Terrorist
• The inscription below in Farsi says Terrorist

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Stage 2

• We showed our informants a set of photographs
  from the Holocaust Cartoon Exhibition in Tehran.
• This is what they said

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Holocaust Cartoon Exhibition
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Poster at the Entrance to the Holocaust Cartoon
Exhibition

• This is a photo taken surreptitiously with a
  mobile phone at the entrance to the exhibition.
• It shows part of the poster and an Iranian woman
  leaving.

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IsraeL

• L is in the shape of an army boot crushing down
  on the world.

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Stars of David

• Star of David emerges then disappears.
• This symbolizes the ephemeral nature of Israel.

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Uncle Sam

• Hard to see
• Uncle Sam with the face of Hitler hat is in the
  shape of the swastika Nazi sign
• Uncle Sam wants you.

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Death by Swastika

• Swastikas Nazis used as weapon to attack
  Palestinians.
• Bullet-holes (shooting) and rocks (stoning)
  suggest that he couldnt be killed with rocks
  and bullets, but the Swastika got him.

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HolocausT

• T is in the shape of a cross, symbolising the
  crucifixion of Palestine.
• This is complex symbolism it links the holocaust
  and crucifixion with Zionism.
• This is partly an aspect of the Islamic view of
  Israel as a crusader state and partly a
  conflation of the two non-Muslim religions of
  The Book.

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Poster to Publicize the Exhibition.

• The inverted helmets suggest that the Star of
  David is the obverse of the Nazi swastika.
• The strap coming out is snake-like.

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What do these Cartoons Mean?

• The images draw upon longstanding negative
  stereotypes of Jews in Europe and the Middle
  East. In particular they are very similar to
  those produced under the Third Reich eg Die
  Sturmer
• They point to a broader view that the state of
  Israel plays upon the victim-hood of the Jewish
  people in the holocaust during World War Two to
  justify its oppression of the Palestinians.
• They also indicate a view that the IAEA is
  hypocritical in its approach to weapons
  inspection in the Middle East.

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What do these Cartoons Mean? II

• There was an emphasis on the innocent gaze of the
  two young Iranian children a boy and a girl in
  the face of brutality and aggression by Israel,
  and more broadly by its media apologists.
• These cartoons sit within a tradition of strong
  anti-semitism in Iran itself and help
  contextualize the nuclear program in Iran and the
  Holocaust Cartoon Competition Exhibition in
  Tehran during the summer of 2006.

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Is This Sufficient?

• Not quite!
• As sociologists we also need to study how these
  cartoons resonate within the political culture of
  Iran itself.
• Our informants were unusual highly educated,
  fairly westernized and almost certainly far more
  liberal in their attitudes than most other
  Iranians.

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Is This Sufficient? Cont

• To proceed further we need to develop a more
  quantitative strategy that would involve
  analyzing how different groups in Iran read
  these messages themselves.
• It is unclear how these images resonate within
  Iran
• The precise methodological template for such
  research is unclear it should avoid the
  omniscient gaze so popular amongst cultural
  analysts in their discussion of the Danish
  cartoons.
• It would involve some form of direct questioning
  but should it be in the form of a survey or in
  the form of interviews either individual or
  focus groups?

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Is This Sufficient? Cont

• It would also be interesting to interview the
  cartoonists themselves and the newspaper editors
  that commission their work.