Carlos Latuff (born 30 November 1968) is a Brazilian
political cartoonist
An editorial cartoonist, also known as a political cartoonist, is an artist who draws editorial cartoons that contain some level of political or social commentary. Their cartoons are used to convey and question an aspect of daily news or curre ...
.
His work deals with themes such as
anti-Western sentiment
Anti-Western sentiment, also known as Anti-Atlanticism or Westernophobia, refers to broad opposition, bias, or hostility towards the people, culture, or policies of the Western world.
Definition and usage
In many modern cases, anti-Western s ...
,
anti-capitalism, and opposition to
U.S. military intervention. He is best known for his images depicting the
Israeli–Palestinian conflict
The Israeli–Palestinian conflict is one of the world's most enduring conflicts, beginning in the mid-20th century. Various attempts have been made to resolve the conflict as part of the Israeli–Palestinian peace process, alongside other ef ...
and the
Arab Spring
The Arab Spring ( ar, الربيع العربي) was a series of Nonviolent resistance, anti-government protests, Rebellion, uprisings and Insurgency, armed rebellions that spread across much of the Arab world in the early 2010s. It began in T ...
events.
Latuff's cartoons comparing
Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
to
Nazism
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) i ...
have been accused of being
antisemitic
Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism.
Antis ...
by the
Simon Wiesenthal Center
The Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC) is a Jewish human rights organization established in 1977 by Rabbi Marvin Hier. The center is known for Holocaust research and remembrance, hunting Nazi war criminals, combating anti-Semitism, tolerance educat ...
and by other authorities in the field, especially the cartoons of his which are considered to
trivialize the
Holocaust
The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...
.
Latuff has dismissed the charges of
antisemitism
Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism.
Antis ...
as "a strategy for discrediting
criticism of Israel
Criticism of the Israeli government, often referred to simply as criticism of Israel, is a subject of journalistic and scholarly commentary and research within the scope of international relations theory, expressed in terms of political science. ...
."
Early life
Latuff was born in the neighborhood of
São Cristóvão in
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...
, Brazil, and is of Lebanese ancestry; in his own words, he has "
Arab
The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...
roots".
History
Latuff began as a cartoonist for leftist publications in Brazil. After watching a 1997 documentary about the
Zapatistas
Zapatista(s) may refer to:
* Liberation Army of the South
The Liberation Army of the South ( es, Ejército Libertador del Sur, ELS) was a guerrilla force led for most of its existence by Emiliano Zapata that took part in the Mexican Revolut ...
in Mexico, he sent a couple of cartoons to them, and received a positive response. He has stated that after this experience, he decided to start a
website
A website (also written as a web site) is a collection of web pages and related content that is identified by a common domain name and published on at least one web server. Examples of notable websites are Google Search, Google, Facebook, Amaz ...
and engage in "artistic activism". Graham Fowell, ex-chairman of the Cartoonists' Club of Great Britain, has compared his work to that of
Banksy
Banksy is a pseudonymous England-based street artist, political activist and film director whose real name and identity remain unconfirmed and the subject of speculation. Active since the 1990s, his satirical street art and subversive epigram ...
, the English-based graffiti artist.
In 2011, Latuff was contacted by activists in Egypt. Latuff has stated that he was encouraged when he saw some of his cartoons depicted in the
January 25 Egyptian protests, a couple of days after he made them. According to
Reuters
Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world.
The agency was estab ...
, this helped him become "a hero of the tumultuous
Arab Spring
The Arab Spring ( ar, الربيع العربي) was a series of Nonviolent resistance, anti-government protests, Rebellion, uprisings and Insurgency, armed rebellions that spread across much of the Arab world in the early 2010s. It began in T ...
with rapid-fire satirical sketches".
Latuff has been arrested at least three times in Brazil for his cartoons about the Brazilian police, whom he has criticized for
police brutality.
Published works
Latuff's works have often been self-published on
Indymedia
The Independent Media Center, better known as Indymedia, is an open publishing network of activist journalist collectives that report on political and social issues. Following beginnings during the 1999 Carnival Against Capital and 1999 Seattl ...
websites and private blogs. He is a weekly cartoonist for ''
The Globe Post
Mahir Zeynalov (IPA: ) is a Washington D.C.-based journalist, entrepreneur and a press freedom advocate. Zeynalov is currently the CEO of Globe Post Media, a columnist for Al Arabiya and writing for Huffington Post . He rose to international pr ...
'' and some of his cartoons have been featured in magazines such as the Brazilian edition of ''
Mad'', ''
Le Monde Diplomatique'' and the ''
Mondoweiss
''Mondoweiss'' is a news website that began as a general-interest blog written by Philip Weiss on ''The New York Observer'' website. It subsequently developed into a broader collaborative venture after fellow journalist Adam Horowitz joined it ...
'' website.
In addition, a few of his works were published on Arab websites and publications such as the ''
Islamic Front for the Iraqi Resistance
The Islamic Front for the Iraqi Resistance (Arabic: الجبهة الإسلامية للمقاومة العراقية - جامع, ''al-Jabha el-Islamiya lil-Moqawama al-Iraqiya'') abbreviated ''JAMI'', was a Sunni islamist insurgent group in Iraq ...
'' (JAMI) magazine, the Saudi magazine ''Character'', the Lebanese newspaper ''
Al Akhbar'', among others. Additionally, Latuff also contributes to several Middle Eastern newspapers, including ''Alquds Alarabi'', ''Huna Sotak'' and the ''Islamophobia Research and Documentation Project – IRDP.'' In 2019 a selection of his cartoons was published in the book ''Drawing Attention to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Political Cartoons by Carlos Latuff''.
Themes
A large number of Latuff's cartoons are related to the
Israeli–Palestinian conflict
The Israeli–Palestinian conflict is one of the world's most enduring conflicts, beginning in the mid-20th century. Various attempts have been made to resolve the conflict as part of the Israeli–Palestinian peace process, alongside other ef ...
, an issue which assumed significance for the cartoonist after a visit to the region in the late 1990s. His cartoons are extremely critical of
Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
.
Latuff has created a series of cartoons criticizing United States president
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...
, Brazilian president
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (; born Luiz Inácio da Silva; 27 October 1945), known mononymously as Lula, is a Brazilian politician, trade unionist, and former metalworker who is the president-elect of Brazil. A member of the Workers' Party ...
, and British prime minister
Tony Blair
Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He previously served as Leader of th ...
, among other politicians.
Latuff is critical of US military action in Iraq and Afghanistan. He began to publish his work on the web from the earliest stages of the invasion. According to his narrative, "war is not a video game, and technofetishism is not to be celebrated, but exposed." He has made promotional cartoons for anti-US militancy as well as cartoons alleging US actions have been motivated by the chance of making profit from oil. Among the cartoons, there are also some that portray US soldiers as severely wounded, dead, or paraplegic or as harming Iraqi civilians.
File:Victory.gif,
File:Iraq war, year FOUR!.jpg,
File:KillinintheRain.png,
File:Warforoil.gif,
File:Laughs.gif,
In his comic series ''Tales of Iraq War'' ( ar, حكايات من حرب العراق) he portrays "
Juba, the Baghdad sniper", an
Iraqi insurgency Iraqi insurgency may refer to:
* Iraqi insurgency (2003–2011), part of the Iraq War
** Iraqi insurgency (2003–2006), 2003–2006 phase of the Iraqi insurgency
** Iraqi civil war (2006–2008), multi-sided civil war in Iraq
* Iraqi insurgency (20 ...
character claimed to have shot down several dozen US soldiers, as a "superhero". He has also made a caricature of US President George W. Bush laughing over US casualties.
Since the end of 2010, he has been engaged in producing cartoons about the
Arab Spring
The Arab Spring ( ar, الربيع العربي) was a series of Nonviolent resistance, anti-government protests, Rebellion, uprisings and Insurgency, armed rebellions that spread across much of the Arab world in the early 2010s. It began in T ...
in which he sided with the revolutionaries. After the victory of revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya his cartoons about these countries have focused on the menace of
counter-revolution
A counter-revolutionary or an anti-revolutionary is anyone who opposes or resists a revolution, particularly one who acts after a revolution in order to try to overturn it or reverse its course, in full or in part. The adjective "counter-revoluti ...
or
Western interference. Some of his cartoons have been displayed in mass demonstrations in Arab countries.
Allegations of antisemitism
![Holocaust Remembrance Day](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5d/Holocaust_Remembrance_Day.jpg)
The profile gained by Latuff's cartoons has led to accusations of
antisemitism
Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism.
Antis ...
. Adam Levick, a writer for the
Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, alleged that the cartoons contained antisemitism and antisemitic motifs.
Ian Black of ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' opined in 2008 that Latuff was uninhibited in his utilization of "
judeophobic stereotypes in the service of the
anti-globalisation
The anti-globalization movement or counter-globalization movement, is a social movement critical of economic globalization. The movement is also commonly referred to as the global justice movement, alter-globalization movement, anti-globalis ...
movement."
In 2002 the Swiss-based
Holocaust survivors
Holocaust survivors are people who survived the Holocaust, defined as the persecution and attempted annihilation of the Jews by Nazi Germany and its allies before and during World War II in Europe and North Africa. There is no universally accep ...
organization
Aktion Kinder des Holocaust sued the
Indymedia
The Independent Media Center, better known as Indymedia, is an open publishing network of activist journalist collectives that report on political and social issues. Following beginnings during the 1999 Carnival Against Capital and 1999 Seattl ...
of Switzerland on the charge of
antisemitism
Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism.
Antis ...
for publishing Latuff's cartoon titled ''We are all Palestinians'' series in their website, which depicted a Jewish boy in the
Warsaw Ghetto
The Warsaw Ghetto (german: Warschauer Ghetto, officially , "Jewish Residential District in Warsaw"; pl, getto warszawskie) was the largest of the Nazi ghettos during World War II and the Holocaust. It was established in November 1940 by the G ...
saying: "I am Palestinian."
The criminal proceedings were suspended by Swiss court.
In their 2003 Annual Report, the
Stephen Roth Institute compared Latuff's cartoons of
Ariel Sharon to "the
antisemitic
Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism.
Antis ...
caricatures of
Philipp Rupprecht
Philipp Rupprecht (4 September 1900 – 4 April 1975) was a German cartoonist best known for his anti-Semitic caricatures in the Nazi publication ''Der Stürmer'', under the pen-name Fips.
Career
Born in Nuremberg, Rupprecht immigrated to Argentin ...
in
Julius Streicher
Julius Streicher (12 February 1885 – 16 October 1946) was a member of the Nazi Party, the ''Gauleiter'' (regional leader) of Franconia and a member of the '' Reichstag'', the national legislature. He was the founder and publisher of the virul ...
's ''
Der Stürmer
''Der Stürmer'' (, literally "The Stormer / Attacker / Striker") was a weekly German tabloid-format newspaper published from 1923 to the end of the Second World War by Julius Streicher, the '' Gauleiter'' of Franconia, with brief suspensions ...
''."
The SRI also complained over a cartoon showing Argentinian revolutionary
Che Guevara
Ernesto Che Guevara (; 14 June 1928The date of birth recorded on /upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/78/Ernesto_Guevara_Acta_de_Nacimiento.jpg his birth certificatewas 14 June 1928, although one tertiary source, (Julia Constenla, quoted ...
in a Palestinian
keffiyeh.
In December 2006, Latuff gained the joint-second prize for his cartoon comparing the
West Bank barrier
The Israeli West Bank barrier, comprising the West Bank Wall and the West Bank fence, is a separation barrier built by Israel along the Green Line and inside parts of the West Bank. It is a contentious element of the Israeli–Palestinian ...
with the
Nazi concentration camps at the Iranian
International Holocaust Cartoon Competition showing an Arab male as an inmate.
Latuff's entry was described as "
Holocaust inversion
Comparisons between Israel and Nazi Germany have been made since the 1940s, taking place first within the larger context of the aftermath of World War II. Such comparisons are a rhetorical staple of anti-Zionism in relation to the Israeli–P ...
," a "motif" of antisemitism, by
Manfred Gerstenfeld
Manfred Gerstenfeld ( he, מנפרד גרסטנפלד; 1937 – 25 February 2021) was an Austrian-born Israeli author and chairman of the steering committee of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. He founded and directed the center's post-Holo ...
.
Manfred Gerstenfeld
Manfred Gerstenfeld ( he, מנפרד גרסטנפלד; 1937 – 25 February 2021) was an Austrian-born Israeli author and chairman of the steering committee of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. He founded and directed the center's post-Holo ...
"Ahmadinejad, Iran, and Holocaust manipulation: methods, aims, and reactions"
''Scholars For Peace in the Middle East'', February 1, 2007
Joel Kotek, a professor at Belgium's
Free University of Brussels University of Brussels may refer to several institutions in Brussels, Belgium: Current institutions
* Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), a French-speaking university established as a separate entity in 1970
*Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), a D ...
, in his book ''Cartoons and Extremism'' calls Latuff "the contemporary Drumont of the internet."
Journalist
Édouard Drumont
Édouard Adolphe Drumont (3 May 1844 – 5 February 1917) was a French antisemitic journalist, author and politician. He initiated the Antisemitic League of France in 1889, and was the founder and editor of the newspaper ''La Libre Parole''. ...
was the founder of the
Antisemitic League of France
The Antisemitic League of France (french: Ligue antisémitique de France) was founded in 1889 by journalist Edouard Drumont, with the support of other right-wing French antisemites such as Jacques de Biez, Albert Millot, and Marquis de Morès.
F ...
.
Eddy Portnoy, in ''
The Forward
''The Forward'' ( yi, פֿאָרווערטס, Forverts), formerly known as ''The Jewish Daily Forward'', is an American news media organization for a Jewish American audience. Founded in 1897 as a Yiddish-language daily socialist newspaper, ...
'', reviewing the book in 2008, wrote that Latuff's material is "often terribly obnoxious... but it is a stretch to categorize his cartoons as antisemitic."
British author
Dave Rich
Dave Rich is Head of Policy at the Community Security Trust and is a leading expert on left-wing antisemitism, according to ''The Jewish Chronicle''.Middle East Monitor
The Middle East Monitor (MEMO) is a not-for-profit press monitoring organisation and lobbying group that emerged in mid 2009. MEMO is largely focused on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, but writes about other issues in the Middle East as wel ...
(MEMO) campaign group used one of Latuff's cartoons comparing Israel to
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
which also made use of a Jewish or Zionist octopus, an
anti-semitic trope.
Cartoonist's response
Latuff, in an interview with the Jewish-American weekly newspaper ''The Forward'' in December 2008, responded to charges of antisemitism and the comparisons made between his cartoons and those published in ''
Der Stürmer
''Der Stürmer'' (, literally "The Stormer / Attacker / Striker") was a weekly German tabloid-format newspaper published from 1923 to the end of the Second World War by Julius Streicher, the '' Gauleiter'' of Franconia, with brief suspensions ...
'' in Nazi Germany:
My cartoons have no focus on the Jews or on Judaism. My focus is Israel as a political entity, as a government, their armed forces being a satellite of U.S. interests in the Middle East, and especially Israeli policies toward the Palestinians. It happens to be Israeli Jews that are the oppressors of Palestinians... My detractors say that the use of the Magen David
The Star of David (). is a generally recognized symbol of both Jewish identity and Judaism. Its shape is that of a hexagram: the compound of two equilateral triangles.
A derivation of the '' seal of Solomon'', which was used for decorati ...
in my Israel-related cartoons is irrefutable proof of antisemitism; however, it’s not my fault if Israel chose sacred religious motifs as national symbols
A national symbol is a symbol of any entity considering and manifesting itself to the world as a national community: the sovereign states but also nations and countries in a state of colonial or other dependence, federal integration, or even an e ...
, such as the Knesset Menorah
The Knesset Menorah (Hebrew: מנורת הכנסת ''Menorat HaKnesset'') is a bronze Menorah 4.30 meters high, 3.5 meters wide, and weighs 4 tons. It is located at the edge of Wohl Rose Park (Hebrew ''Gan Havradim'', "Rose Garden") opposite ...
or the Star of David
The Star of David (). is a generally recognized symbol of both Jewish identity and Judaism. Its shape is that of a hexagram: the compound of two equilateral triangles.
A derivation of the ''seal of Solomon'', which was used for decorative ...
in killing-machines like F-16 jets.
Latuff also stated that anti-Semitism is real, that anti-Semites like European neo-Nazis, "hijack" the Palestinian cause to bash Israel. To assert, however, that anti-Zionism is anti-Semitic is, in his view, "a well-known tactic of intellectual dishonesty." He said that political cartoonists work by metaphors, and that similarities can be found between the IDF treatment of Palestinians and what Jews experienced under the Nazis. Such comparisons are not created by cartoonists, he said, but can be made by the viewer. He instanced the fact that a Holocaust survivor like
Tommy Lapid
Yosef "Tommy" Lapid ( he, יוסף "טומי" לפיד, born as Tomislav Lampel, sr-cyr, Томислав Лампел; 27 December 1931 – 1 June 2008) was a Yugoslav-born Israeli radio and television presenter, playwright, journalist, politi ...
reacted to the image of a Palestinian woman foraging in the rubble by thinking of his grandmother who was murdered in Auschwitz. The use of cartoons insulting Muslims by depicting Muhammad as a bomber is defended as "freedom of speech", while using the Holocaust in drawings is deplored as "hatred against the Jews".
Latuff was included in
Simon Wiesenthal Center
The Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC) is a Jewish human rights organization established in 1977 by Rabbi Marvin Hier. The center is known for Holocaust research and remembrance, hunting Nazi war criminals, combating anti-Semitism, tolerance educat ...
's 2012 Top Ten Anti-Israel/Anti-Semitic Slurs list being placed third
for depicting Israeli premier
Benjamin Netanyahu
Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu (; ; born 21 October 1949) is an Israeli politician who served as the ninth prime minister of Israel from 1996 to 1999 and again from 2009 to 2021. He is currently serving as Leader of the Opposition and Chairman of ...
squeezing votes out of a dead Arab child. Latuff told Brazil's ''Opera Mundi'' newspaper that he considered the award "a joke worthy of a
Woody Allen
Heywood "Woody" Allen (born Allan Stewart Konigsberg; November 30, 1935) is an American film director, writer, actor, and comedian whose career spans more than six decades and multiple Academy Award-winning films. He began his career writing ...
movie". He also claimed that Zionist lobbying groups try to associate him with well-known extremists and racists in order to disqualify his
criticism of the Israeli government
Criticism of the Israeli government, often referred to simply as criticism of Israel, is a subject of journalistic and scholarly commentary and research within the scope of international relations theory, expressed in terms of political science. ...
. He also said figures such as
José Saramago
José de Sousa Saramago, GColSE ComSE GColCa (; 16 November 1922 – 18 June 2010), was a Portuguese writer and recipient of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Literature for his "parables sustained by imagination, compassion and irony ith which hec ...
,
Desmond Tutu and
Jimmy Carter
James Earl Carter Jr. (born October 1, 1924) is an American politician who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he previously served as th ...
were also accused of being antisemitic, saying that he was "in good company".
Prizes
* Latuff received joint-second prize in the antisemitic parody
International Holocaust Cartoon Competition.
Publications
* ''Drawing attention to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Political Cartoons by Carlos Latuff,'' 2019, .
See also
*
Omaya Joha
Umayyah Juha or Omaya Joha (Arabic: أمية جحا ) is a Palestinian artist and political cartoonist. She was born in Gaza City on 2 February 1972. She won the Arab Journalism Award for the year 2001. She is the first female cartoonist in th ...
References
External links
Official blogLatuff's official pageon
Twitpic
TwitPic was a website and app that allowed users to post pictures to the Twitter microblogging service, which at the time of TwitPic's creation could not be posted to Twitter directly. TwitPic was often used by citizen journalists to upload and d ...
Latuff's official pageon
DeviantArt
DeviantArt (historically stylized as deviantART) is an American online art community that features artwork, videography and photography, launched on August 7, 2000 by Angelo Sotira, Scott Jarkoff, and Matthew Stephens among others.
DeviantArt, ...
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Latuff, Carlos
1968 births
Living people
Brazilian anti-capitalists
Brazilian artists
Brazilian cartoonists
Brazilian socialists
Brazilian people of Lebanese descent
People from Rio de Janeiro (city)
Anti-Zionism in South America
Left-wing politics in Brazil
Anti-imperialism
Anti-Americanism
Nazi analogies
Controversies in Brazil
Political controversies
Comics controversies
Palestinian solidarity activists