"But it is possible that the Holocaust, which is an absolute fact, a historical fact, would be misused," said Khatami.

November 2, 2006 1:46 AM

The Holocaust Cartoon Contest results are inand the winner is Moroccan cartoonist Abdellah Derkaoui, who won $12 000 for his effort, "depicting an Israeli crane piling large cement blocks on Israel's security wall and gradually obscuring Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem." The contest was launched in response to the Danish cartoon controversy (previously discussed), with the intent of testing the limits of freedom of expression, so please resist the urge to riot - YHBT. 204 of the entries are now on display.
posted by mek (69 comments total)

came up here but really deserves its own thread, the galleries are certainly... something.
posted by mek at 1:48 AM on November 2, 2006

That winning cartoon is pretty weak.

I'm looking through the galleries. If anyone finds one better than this one, please let me know.
posted by redteam at 2:08 AM on November 2, 2006

I'd like to start a cartoon contest, too.

Let's make fun of handicapped people. Winner gets $5, american.
posted by zerolives at 2:08 AM on November 2, 2006

When Jews Attack!
posted by chillmost at 2:22 AM on November 2, 2006

Holocust Contest.
posted by Herr Fahrstuhl at 2:24 AM on November 2, 2006

Some folks will be offended, some will yawn, some will laugh, many will not care, and in two weeks it'll just be a forgotten news story. I can't see any deadly riots taking place over this.
posted by zardoz at 2:25 AM on November 2, 2006

I can't imagine being offended by such ham handed work. Very few of them seem to have considered that to be offensive you have to actually hit people close to home...

This one is at least making an coherent comment.
posted by beerbajay at 2:38 AM on November 2, 2006

Some of them are very good.
Some of them just miss the point.
Very few of them actually suggest holocaust denial.
Many of them are simply crass.
posted by mr. strange at 2:42 AM on November 2, 2006

Tard blog beats most handicapped cartoons.

Jesus cartoons might get more the desired reaction, just not from the Dutch.
posted by jeffburdges at 2:46 AM on November 2, 2006 [1 favorite]

Hmmm... I've tried in Firefox, Safari and even IE, and all I get is "server not found" messages. Weird, though, cause it looks like plenty of you have been able to get to the site.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 2:49 AM on November 2, 2006

I guess the Jews will condemn these cartoons, the cartoonists will be given a death verdict without trial, Jews all over the world will riot and American flags will burn in Tel Aviv.

Uncivilized barbarians!
posted by acetonic at 2:52 AM on November 2, 2006

"Our president was the brave and freedom-seeking person who started this debate without being concerned about its consequences," Saffar-Harandi said.

Right. Takes such courage to pick on a comparatively tiny religious minority.
posted by psmealey at 3:04 AM on November 2, 2006

Wow. Some really hateful crap in there.

Hook noses? Check.

Money grubbing? Check.

Blood libel? Check.

Facile comparisons of Zionists and Nazis? Check.

So, Ahmidinijad's efforts to lower the tone of discourse continue unabated. And we do our part to help him out by publicizing this shit.

I guess I'm of the mind that, when your neighbor is making an ass of himself, it's best to tread carefully and not make the problem worse, whether he's a Muslim or a Dane. The best response to this kind of atavistic hate-mongering and ideological revanchism is an embarrassed silence.

But then, I've been branded one of "the usual ignorant 'Arabs suck!' types," so what do I know? Maybe there are layers of subtlety here that my dim mind can't wrap itself around.
posted by felix betachat at 3:07 AM on November 2, 2006

Most of these are unimaginative drivel. And what's with the 'hooked noses' anyway? From what I've seen of the world, most Jews and Arabs are basically phenotypically identical. Anyway, I am so offended. I am going to riot and burn flags outside an Embassay and make hyperbolic threats about how the streets will run with Arab blood. Or maybe I will just go play WoW...
posted by Rogalian at 3:15 AM on November 2, 2006

Some of them just miss the point.

Those seem to be the only ones on point, mr.strange.

Both of those (lame) cartoons you link to seem to be making (amatuerish and un-imaginative) fun of the apparent hypocrisy of some countries defending free speech whilst having on the books specific laws against Holocaust denial. Such double-standard seems to me to be very much at the heart of the conflict.
posted by three blind mice at 3:20 AM on November 2, 2006

mr. strange: it's worth noting that the three cartoons you single out as "very good" (a sentiment with which I fully agree, btw) were made by a Columbian, a Pole and a Venezuelan, respectively. And that none of them won.

I don't think that fostering thoughtful political critique from the dhimmis was really what Ahmidinijad was after.
posted by felix betachat at 3:24 AM on November 2, 2006

Aaaargh! I still can't get this site! Anyone else out there not able to get to it? Is it my server here in Japan blocking this URL or something? Nah, no way... Am I the only one who can't reach this?
posted by flapjax at midnite at 3:27 AM on November 2, 2006

Really felix? I thought two of the ones you labeled as hateful had valid points, especially the last link:

The Jews try to put out the fire, lit by the nazis, that's wiping out their people, bur they are dousing it with Arab blood. It's not intentional, but it's a quick solution, just as the solution of Israel did a lot of good for the Jews who had no place to go and needed a homeland, but did a lot of terrible shit to the people who were already living there.

(Unless of course we are to believe that the Jews lit that Nazi fire themselves, bringing the holocaust on themselves, that would be horseshit but that wasn't my first interpretation of the comic)

I also like it because the Jewish soldier looks like a Muppet.

For the record, the other link I liked was the one that felix had under crap and I still remember bits and pieces from my bar mitzvah torah portion.
posted by elr at 3:37 AM on November 2, 2006

elr: both are evocations of the blood libel, which derives ultimately from the ur-Anti-Semitic text of Matt 27:24-25. These sorts of associations of Jews with blood, its desecration and manipulation, have no place in reasoned discourse. They depend on a particularly nasty reading of texts like Leviticus 16 and a desire to foster a hateful discourse in which the victimized are imagined as capable of the worst sorts of atrocity.

The best skewering of this blood libel, to my mind, is Paul Celan's agonizingly beautiful poem, Tenebrae:

Wir haben getrunken, Herr.
Das Blut und das Bild, das im Blut war, Herr.
posted by felix betachat at 3:50 AM on November 2, 2006

flapjax at midnite: The server seems to be getting hit quite hard -- I saw a couple of cartoons, and then couldn't get any to load.
posted by chrismear at 3:57 AM on November 2, 2006

Here's an idea: Darfur cartoons! There's no holocaust happening there, right?
posted by worbid411 at 4:10 AM on November 2, 2006

Felix, I think you're reading a bit much into that one. I see no real aspect of blood libel in it. I certainly don't see it as a "hateful discourse" to say that Israel has, in trying to free Jews from anti-Semitism, spilled a bit of Palestinian blood.
posted by stammer at 4:19 AM on November 2, 2006

Not as far off the mark as you might think, worbid, given that Iran is one of the major suppliers of arms to those who are prosecuting genocide in Darfur.

So, yeah. In between denying the destruction of Jews in Europe and planning the next one in Palestine, the Iranians are keeping an iron in the fire in the Sudan.

So, I suppose if they were really invested in the genocide they're abetting there, they might try to debase the term "holocaust" in its application to the Darfurians as well.
posted by felix betachat at 4:26 AM on November 2, 2006

Sorry for the broken link above. I need to proofread better.

Amnesty Int'l link
posted by felix betachat at 4:27 AM on November 2, 2006

> Facile comparisons of Zionists and Nazis? Check.

Absolutely no cause for anyone on this site to complain about facile comparisons of _______ and Nazis. It's a done thing.
posted by jfuller at 4:34 AM on November 2, 2006

Not very much are good here and the prize is cheap. I find it odd that so many people keep to the myth that there was a Palestinian land, peop,e state that was taken away by the Jews. In fact: no Palestinian state. There were arabs and Jews living on what had been land controlled by Ottomans and then the British till the UN made two states, side by side, possible. History also shows that many arabs came to the Israel area because of development, jobs, progress.
I imagine that the contest did not provile more than a few comments and yawns
posted by Postroad at 4:57 AM on November 2, 2006

So religions are now settling their disputes with cartoon contests?
I think we can call that progress.
posted by spazzm at 5:07 AM on November 2, 2006 [3 favorites]

Wow, that's a pretty lousy prize. I hope they at least got Mel Gibson to emcee the thing.
posted by damn dirty ape at 5:09 AM on November 2, 2006

The best response to this kind of atavistic hate-mongering and ideological revanchism is an embarrassed silence.

Of course, we've simply two different approaches—but I think the best approach is to laugh at how unoriginal it all is, then laugh at how childish this "You called me a dum-dum so I'm going to call you a poopypants" dialectic is, and then laugh because many of the artists seem to think the only way to jab back at their oppressors is to ironically reference some wrong they suffered sixty years ago.

There's always something else to laugh about. People over there hate it when you laugh at them. Don't think because of that slimy nasal sound that mongering is a bad thing.
posted by adoarns at 5:18 AM on November 2, 2006

Anyway, I am so offended. I am going to riot and burn flags outside an Embassay and make hyperbolic threats about how the streets will run with Arab blood. Or maybe I will just go play WoW...

1) Which will get you on TV or in the papers?

2) Where do you get your impression of the Arab world from?

Just saying.
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 5:44 AM on November 2, 2006

I guess the Jews will condemn these cartoons, the cartoonists will be given a death verdict without trial, Jews all over the world will riot and American flags will burn in Tel Aviv.

Or Israeli Jews might lob a few rockets at civilians again, that sort of thing.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 5:49 AM on November 2, 2006 [1 favorite]

There's always something else to laugh about. People over there hate it when you laugh at them.

No time to dig up links (sorry) but two stories spring to mind. First, in response to this nonsense was the anti-zionist cartoon contest open only to Jews. It was great because it both held a fun-house mirror up to this nonsense and said, "Yeah, yeah, we know all the stereotypes too."

Second is the nazi themed clowns that more or less caused the peaceful dissolution of a neo-nazi rally somewhere in the Northwest just a few weeks after a similar rally ended in violence in one of the great lakes states. The best part of the story I read was when the author observed that the clowns did a better job of goose stepping than the neo-nazis.
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 5:53 AM on November 2, 2006 [1 favorite]

Or Israeli Jews might lob a few rockets at civilians again, that sort of thing.

Or maybe just drop a million or so bomblets on civilian targets as a punative measure. There is no side in this that is without sin.
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 5:54 AM on November 2, 2006

I'm sorry, but the whole thing is just spectacularly tedious. Not aggravating, not enlightening, not amusing. Not even sad.

Just dull.
posted by aramaic at 6:02 AM on November 2, 2006

Hook noses? Check.

Money grubbing? Check.

Blood libel? Check.

Totally!. The Iranians must have invaded American cinemas as well!
posted by matteo at 6:03 AM on November 2, 2006

more like lollercaust, am i right?
posted by naxosaxur at 6:08 AM on November 2, 2006 [2 favorites]

Didn't a bunch of Israeli cartoonists say they were going to enter and win this contest? Evidently, the premise was that there was no anti-Jewish hatred that made better cartoon fodder than Jewish self-hatred.
posted by jonp72 at 6:10 AM on November 2, 2006

Huh? What does the winning cartoon have to do with the holocaust?
posted by delmoi at 6:14 AM on November 2, 2006

guess the Jews will condemn these cartoons, the cartoonists will be given a death verdict without trial, Jews all over the world will riot and American flags will burn in Tel Aviv.

The first, of course. I think the second would happen if they could do it. Targeted assassination is one of the Israeli Army's favored tactics. 'Death verdict without trial' sums it up pretty well.

There are no good guys here.
posted by Malor at 6:18 AM on November 2, 2006

Huh? What does the winning cartoon have to do with the holocaust?

delmoi: Auschwitz/Birkenau is depicted on the wall.
posted by felix betachat at 6:29 AM on November 2, 2006

The Iranians must have invaded American cinemas as well!

Given that Muslim aniconism and ressentiment are our topics, this seems apposite.
posted by felix betachat at 6:42 AM on November 2, 2006

zardoz writes "I can't see any deadly riots taking place over this."

Indeed, I doubt that riot police will have to be deployed to Queens or the Upper East Side.
posted by clevershark at 6:54 AM on November 2, 2006 [1 favorite]

Driven by hate
posted by caddis at 7:02 AM on November 2, 2006

You missed my previous post, about the Israeli contest where they tried to come up with even more offensive Holocaust cartoons.

Also, this was sponsored by the Iranian Ministry of Culture, whose head had this wonderful quote:

"The Holocaust is a myth and this issue has finally made waves thanks to the action of President Ahmadinejad in daring to express himself on the subject and break the Holocaust taboo," Iranian Culture Minister Mohammad Hossein Saffar-Harandi said as he announced the cartoon winners.

posted by blahblahblah at 8:19 AM on November 2, 2006

I keep getting server errors for the main link.
posted by owhydididoit at 8:59 AM on November 2, 2006

delmoi: Auschwitz/Birkenau is depicted on the wall.

Ah, the page wasn't loading for me earlier.
posted by delmoi at 9:04 AM on November 2, 2006

Won't load for me.
posted by rougy at 9:16 AM on November 2, 2006

Evidently, the premise was that there was no anti-Jewish hatred that made better cartoon fodder than Jewish self-hatred.

The spin that one of the people running the thing put on it was that basically, if you run and cry when the other kids make fun of you, you just set yourself up to be made fun of. But if you can trump their mean little joke with more of the same, they're left standing there looking limp.

Oh, and here's the bit about the nazi rally I described earlier. The paragraph of note:

Especially noteworthy was the troupe of protesters dressed as clowns -- Nazi clowns, who actually goosestepped together better than the inchoate cluster up on the Capitol steps. They pranced and laughed and danced in the front of the crowd, setting the light-hearted mocking tone that prevailed throughout the afternoon.
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 9:38 AM on November 2, 2006

Both of those (lame) cartoons you link to seem to be making (amatuerish and un-imaginative) fun of the apparent hypocrisy of some countries defending free speech whilst having on the books specific laws against Holocaust denial. Such double-standard seems to me to be very much at the heart of the conflict.

While I agree that anti-holocaust denial laws are hypocritical, they are orders of magnitude less hypocritical than the Iranian regime. This contest is supposed to champion free speech? Then answer me this, how many cartoonists in Iran are making cartoons lampooning their government? This is supposedly in response to the Danish prophet cartoons. So some Danish people supposedly insult Islam, and the response is to slander the Jews? Shouldn't they be mocking Denmark instead? The Muslim world is furious at their religion being mocked, but has for years mocked the Jewish religion in the cartoon pages of their newspapers?

I would say that these double standards are much more at the heart of "the conflict" than a handful of outdated and shortsighted laws that were mostly passed in the immediate aftermath of WWII, mostly in countries where freedom of speech isn't an absolute right like it is in the US.
posted by SBMike at 9:47 AM on November 2, 2006

What will be interesting to me will be if the American newspapers who were so breathless about the whole thing and who "reluctantly, but in the spirit of free speech" printed the original cartoons, will now follow up and reluctantly but in the spirit of free speech print a selection of these.

My guess would be a big fat no. In fact, I doubt the completion of the contest will even be reported.

This is an excellent moment in the history of the internet. Sane, rational (as much as cartoonists anywhere are sane or rational) members of the Middle East are getting their voices heard directly in the West.

You may not agree with what they have to say (and there are clearly a few crackpots in there), but these aren't random people who (somewhat mysteriously, from a western viewpoint) are rioting in the street. These are people who responded to ink and paper with ink and paper.

Very cool.
posted by tkolar at 10:17 AM on November 2, 2006

SBMike, the German anti-Holocaust-denial/anti-Nazi laws are very serious, and in no way "outdated". There are plenty of books you can buy in any American bookstore that you can't sell in Germany... ironic in the light of history, I suppose.
posted by vorfeed at 11:09 AM on November 2, 2006

Bummer. I thought it was going to be a Holocaust-themed Cartoon Caption Contest.

Mine was going to say: "I'd rather be playing Scrabble."
posted by gigawhat? at 11:21 AM on November 2, 2006

Sane, rational (as much as cartoonists anywhere are sane or rational) members of the Middle East are getting their voices heard directly in the West.

And they're saying that Jews have big hooked noses and drink blood.

It's a state-sponsored program on a theme chosen by a politician in order to promote his government's demand for censorship. This is not what I would call a great moment in the history of free speech.

What will be interesting to me will be if the American newspapers who were so breathless about the whole thing and who "reluctantly, but in the spirit of free speech" printed the original cartoons, will now follow up and reluctantly but in the spirit of free speech print a selection of these.

The Mohammed cartoons became newsworthy when they provoked worldwide rioting and death threats. Nobody's outraged enough about these cartoons to make them newsworthy. We already know the Iranians are led by Jew-hating goons. The competition is explicitly antisemitic, so everyone knows what to expect when they view them. Where's the scope for controversy?

These are people who responded to ink and paper with ink and paper.

The response is actually President Ahmadinejad's, not the cartoonists. They're not even on the theme of the original cartoons. The only reason they can be seen as a response is that Ahmadinejad is a nutter.

President Ahmadinejad 's point was (as I understand it) that the West as a whole was blaspheming something Islam held holy, and so he would point out its hypocrisy by blaspheming something the West finds holy. And it has provoked a huge yawn, because the only people who accept his premises are crazy nutsos.

If it wasn't so sad it would be funny: a Danish newspaper prints cartoons to make a point about Moslem hypersensitivity. Moslems worldwide riot. Ahmadinejad prints cartoons to show that Westerners are just as sensitive and would do just the same. No riots. Oops. I guess that he's just confirmed the Danish newspaper's point.
posted by Joe in Australia at 11:35 AM on November 2, 2006

Joe in Australia wrote...

Sane, rational (as much as cartoonists anywhere are sane or rational) members of the Middle East are getting their voices heard directly in the West.

And they're saying that Jews have big hooked noses and drink blood.

Let us recall that the Danish cartoons showed various caricatures of Mohammed, including one with a bomb in his turban. Both sides get to play the ridiculously overdone stereotype game -- it's part of the medium of political cartooning.
posted by tkolar at 12:22 PM on November 2, 2006

Exactly my sentimonies, Joe.

It all started out as "they think that insulting our prophet (PBUH) is covered by free speech? Well let's insult what's most holy to them. That'll show them!"

Except that all they get is a worldwide shrug or perhaps a "look at those crazy Muslims there." No outrage. No burning embassies. Nothing. Their strategy failed entirely.

And the cartoons are completely lame. I mean the Danish Mohammed cartoons were lame, but these are really sleep-inducing. So I guess all this contest really accomplished was to show the world that Muslim cartoonists are humorless hacks.
posted by sour cream at 12:27 PM on November 2, 2006

But then, I've been branded one of "the usual ignorant 'Arabs suck!' types,"

Well, considering Iranians are not Arabs... the ignorant part might come into play :)
posted by cell divide at 12:42 PM on November 2, 2006

I just saw this cartoon and I rioted.

I rose up in anger and rage. I grabbed my monitor and attempted to throw it through the window. But it was still plugged in.

So, with rage and indignation, I crawled under my desk and carefully unhooked the monitor cable, USB, FireWire, and power supply.

Then I again raised the monitor over my head screaming invective at the Muslims... "Gosh Darned Muslims!" I screamed. Just as I was about to let loose the monitor I thought, "Wait. I'm gonna illustrate a picture of the Prophet in Photoshop. Have THAT displayed on the monitor as I crash it through the window! Brilliant!"

With anger and righteous rage I crawled back under my desk and carefully hooked up all the cables again. I noted the huge dust bunnies. I would deal with them after the riot.

Over the next several hours, after downloading a 13th century wood cut of the Prophet, I then spent time, pixel by pixel, illustrating painting on a clown nose, crossed eyes, and blacked in teeth. Yeah. Man. RIOT!

It was perfect. I was now ready, with slightly less rage than before because I was slightly tired, to throw my monitor through the window. I break’d for a quick snack and to watch an episode of Battle Star Galactica. I came back to the monitor.

I realized - SHIT - I will have to keep everything hooked up in order for the image to be displayed as it crashed to the sidewalk four stories below. SHIT. No way am I smashing my cool Dual Core G5 Mac Pro. What should I do?

So then I printed the image. Taped it to the monitor. Carefully unhooked the monitor. Dust bunnies! Got up. Raised the monitor over my head... ready to demonstrate my flaring rage… by tossing it through the window… "Darn you Muslims yadda yadda yadda..." Aaaand…

And then I gotta call to get some work out by four. Damn.

So I re-hooked up my monitor, folded the Prophet into a paper airplane and threw THAT out the window.

TAKE THAT MUSLIMS!
posted by tkchrist at 12:46 PM on November 2, 2006 [4 favorites]

SBMike, the German anti-Holocaust-denial/anti-Nazi laws are very serious, and in no way "outdated". There are plenty of books you can buy in any American bookstore that you can't sell in Germany... ironic in the light of history, I suppose.

By outdated, I meant that there seems to be a growing consensus among enlightened circles (such as metafilter, for example) that these laws are counterproductive, hypocritical, violations of free speech, and give these scumbags a bit of righteousness for their dismal cause. I mean, I even remember seeing opposition to these laws in the comments of the Jerusalem Post's website, usually a bastion of reactionary right-wing Jewish fundamentalists.

These laws are indeed very serious and still in practice, but I'd be very surprised if that were still the case in 10 or 20 years.
posted by SBMike at 1:48 PM on November 2, 2006

Both sides get to play the ridiculously overdone stereotype game -- it's part of the medium of political cartooning.

Ahmadinejad was trying to make a similar point, but failed. There are no "sides". The Danish newspaper didn't print the cartoons as some sort of campaign against Islam per se, and I presume that its editors aren't bothered by the Holocaust cartoons. Why should they be?

It would have been halfway rational for Ahmadinejad's contest to be about Denmark, making poking merciless fun at the stereotypical Danish ... er, love of soft cheese? And Lego. His actual response only makes sense in the funhouse mirror of antisemitic conspiracy theorists where everything's connected. The lack of response to Ahmadinejad's contest shows how stupid this sort of mindset really is.
posted by Joe in Australia at 2:43 PM on November 2, 2006

Twelve thousand more reasons to abandon religion.
posted by evil holiday magic at 3:01 PM on November 2, 2006

Busted. I guess I'll wait a couple of days and try again.
posted by arcticwoman at 3:30 PM on November 2, 2006

The comments made me crack up on this one

"So some Danish people supposedly insult Islam, and the response is to slander the Jews? Shouldn't they be mocking Denmark instead?"

How many pastry jokes do you know? (Side note— when I asked a Dane about danishes— I had to— he said he'd never heard of them. "I'm not so much into cake," he said.)
posted by klangklangston at 4:17 PM on November 2, 2006

I was all ready to riot, but then I remembered that I have a job, and enough to eat, and am not a religious fanatic.

So, I probably won't riot then.
posted by rusty at 5:08 PM on November 2, 2006

After the riots fail to materialize, I fully expect Iran to stand up and say, "Huh, how do you like that? I guess they're more tolerant than us after all."
posted by 1adam12 at 5:30 PM on November 2, 2006

The first, of course. I think the second would happen if they could do it. Targeted assassination is one of the Israeli Army's favored tactics.

I love how people who shout the loudest about the conflation of Jews and Israel are the first to do so when it suits their agenda.
posted by Krrrlson at 6:35 PM on November 2, 2006 [1 favorite]

A new article is out from the AP that gives me some hope that the government doesn't reflect the view of the common Iranian:

Iran's competition for cartoons mocking the Holocaust drew international reproach but made little impression at home Thursday, with not a single Iranian newspaper publishing the winning entries and people on the street saying it left them unmoved...

The cartoons, which have been on display at the Museum of Contemporary Arts for Palestine since August, have not drawn large crowds though state schools bused their students to the show.

"Drawing cartoons ... isn't a good way to solve real and old problems," said Ahmad Nasiri, a 23-year-old architecture student. "Denying the Holocaust through cartoons doesn't contribute to humanity."

Don't know if it was representative, but it is good to know that even as the state busses students to see the show(!) it is not meeting with widespread acclaim.
posted by blahblahblah at 8:46 PM on November 2, 2006

Iran's competition for cartoons mocking the Holocaust drew international reproach but made little impression at home Thursday, with not a single Iranian newspaper publishing the winning entries ...

Because Jews control the media!
posted by Joe in Australia at 9:43 PM on November 2, 2006

Um, I'm too late for the riot?
posted by Blip at 7:17 AM on November 3, 2006

Those comix were a laff riot!
posted by gigawhat? at 9:27 AM on November 3, 2006