MThe “Süddeutsche Zeitung” really has no luck with its caricatures. This is not the first time that drawings have been criticized in this newspaper, and it is not the first time that anti-Semitic clichés have been accused of being used. In this case, it is about a caricature showing the Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyj, who is connected to the World Economic Forum in Davos.
Selenskyj appears in the picture larger than life, stocky, shadowed eyes, scowling, monstrous. Tiny notables from the World Economic Forum are gathered below him at the oval conference table.
He sees this caricature as “a bad misrepresentation of the President of Ukraine, and I don’t think that’s acceptable,” said the Bavarian Anti-Semitism Commissioner Ludwig Spaenle. The depiction awakens anti-Semitic clichés in many people who are far removed from reality. This is also disturbing for him personally because he appreciates the newspaper’s reporting on anti-Semitic tendencies, incidents and crimes. “Too bad, this time the caricature went wrong,” said Spaenle.
The “Jewish General” and the Jewish Student Union Germany also expressed criticism. Critics of the drawing can also be found on the internet. The SZ is accused, for example, that Selenskyj is portrayed as “drooling, oversized and powerful”.
The caricature was published in the holiday edition (May 25) of the “Süddeutsche”. And was, according to the newspaper, as she announced on Twitter, did not fail: “This caricature is the graphic implementation of the TV images from Monday: The Ukrainian President on the video wall, and thus in XXL format, in front of the audience in Davos. It illustrates how dominant the issue of Ukraine is there.”
We regret the “irritations that have arisen”
That was the statement of the SZ on Twitter. In an interview with the German Press Agency, however, the editor-in-chief took up the criticism a little: One regrets the “irritations that arose” in connection with the cartoon, it said. “As we can see from reader reactions, the cartoon evokes anti-Semitic associations in some people. We didn’t intend this at all.” The SZ is “against any form of anti-Semitism”. If you approach the caricature via the real television images of the World Economic Forum, it is a realistic illustration and symbolizes how strongly the topic “Ukraine War” shapes this forum, the German Press Agency quotes the newspaper’s editor-in-chief as saying. At the same time, the editor-in-chief assured that the criticism was taken seriously.
The “Süddeutsche” recently had to contend with allegations of anti-Semitism in relation to its caricatures in 2018. At that time it was about a drawing by the cartoonist Dieter Hanitzsch, who had drawn the then Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with a Star of David rocket. The newspaper had parted ways with the cartoonist.
In the current explanation of the criticized drawing and reply from the SZ, it is striking how strongly it refers to the television pictures from Davos. The caricature of this situation seems roughly simulated and simply exaggerated. You lack any joke.