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UK Police Urged to Take Action Against Cartoonist Over Antisemitic ‘Blood Libel’ Depiction of Netanyahu
British cartoonist Bob Moran’s antisemitic depiction of Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu. Image: X/Twitter
A British cartoonist has been reported to the police and the UK’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) over a viscerally antisemitic depiction of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he shared on X/Twitter over the weekend.
The cartoon by artist Bob Moran shows Netanyahu wearing a deadened expression as he consumes the flesh of Palestinian children at a table covered with blood. Alongside him, dressed in butler’s uniforms and serving him the meal, are US President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who studiously ignore the children’s corpses against a background of devastated buildings in Gaza. One word — “Kosher” — is positioned at the top of the image.
Several respondents pointed to Moran’s invocation of classic antisemitic tropes, such as the medieval blood libel, which falsely held that Jews use the blood of Christian children for their religious rituals, and unaccountable power and influence over foreign governments, as demonstrated by the servile postures in the representations of Biden and Sunak.
“This cartoon…combines three antisemitic tropes of Christian origin,” commented Saul Zadka, a Bible scholar based in Tel Aviv. “Control the world, enslaving non-Jews to do their bidding. They try to supplant the true lord, Jesus…Kill and eat babies and innocents, as they once did to Jesus…Are paragons of hypocrisy, focusing on ‘pharisaic’ ritual purity while rejecting morality, rejecting Jesus.”
Zadka then added: “Moran knew what he was doing, he wants to be martyred, crucified. He wants to be a victim. Christians have almost completely left all this behind, but it’s kept alive by the far left.”
Other social media users merely expressed disgust. “I am truly shocked Bob. This is an antisemitic hate trope. Awful,” one post read.
Among those pledging to report Moran to the police and the CPS was Laura Dodsworth, an author and journalist who contributes to several British media outlets.
“This cartoon is indistinguishable in character and style from the Nazis vile antisemitic propaganda,” Dodsworth wrote. “One specific Nazi counterpart showed a Jew eating children. Nazi-style slurs against Jews have no place in modern Britain.”
However, Moran doubled down on his cartoon, angrily denying that it trafficked in antisemitic tropes and even denying that Netanyahu belongs to the Jewish people.
“By the way, as far as I’m concerned, there are no Jews in that cartoon,” he posted. “If you think the man in the middle is a Jew, you have no understanding of the Jewish faith. Or any faith. Or basic morality.”
A former contributor to The Guardian and Telegraph news outlets, Moran is currently unemployed. He was fired from the Telegraph in 2021 after he used his Twitter feed to attack a doctor who recommended wearing protective masks during the COVID-19 pandemic, telling his followers that she “deserves to be verbally abused.”
The current spat around Moran is the latest in a series of controversies concerning antisemitic images in the British press.
In April 2023, The Guardian was forced to apologize after it published a cartoon of Richard Sharp, the outgoing Jewish chairman of the BBC, showing him with a hooked nose and a sinister grin while holding a box labeled with the name of the Goldman Sachs investment bank, where he previously worked.
In October that year, the same paper announced that it was firing veteran contributor Steve Bell over a cartoon that showed Netanyahu preparing to cut his abdomen in the shape of the Gaza Strip with a scalpel. Editors at The Guardian feared that Bell’s cartoon evoked the “pound of flesh” demanded by the Jewish character Shylock in William Shakespeare’s play “The Merchant of Venice.”
The post UK Police Urged to Take Action Against Cartoonist Over Antisemitic ‘Blood Libel’ Depiction of Netanyahu first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.