The Age and the SMH apologise for publishing ‘appalling and ill-informed’ cartoon of the war in Israel

Nine Entertainment’s Melbourne masthead The Age has made changes to an offensive cartoon relating to the war in Israel and will publish a correction.

An apology for the cartoon will be published in both The Age, edited by Patrick Elligett, and The Sydney Morning Herald, led by editor Bevan Shields, on Monday.

Nine Entertainment’s metro mastheads The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald have been forced to amend an “appalling and ill-informed” cartoon that inaccurately depicted the Israeli flag and equated Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to terrorist organisation Hamas.

The illustration, drawn by veteran cartoonist Alan Moir, was published in the two newspapers on Saturday under the heading “Between the idea and the reality lies the shadow”.

It showed the shadows of Mr Netanyahu and a representative from Hamas standing side-by-side in a joint shadow.

In the bottom left-hand corner of the illustration sits an Israeli flag with a five-pointed Star of David (instead of six), leading to some interpretations that Moir had imposed Satan’s five-pointed pentagram on the flag.

The Palestinian flag was accurately drawn in the illustration.

An apology will be published in both The Age, edited by Patrick Elligett, and The Sydney Morning Herald, led by editor Bevan Shields, on Monday.

The online version of the cartoon was updated on the Nine mastheads on Sunday afternoon, but the original could still be seen on Moir’s social media account on Sunday evening.

The Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council executive Colin Rubenstein told The Australian on Sunday: “Moir’s cartoon is an appalling, ill-informed example of moral equivalence that suggests there is no difference between the victim, democratic Israel, and Hamas, the genocidal perpetrator, and that both are equally responsible for the region’s death and ­destruction”.

“The devastation is entirely a consequence of Hamas’s barbaric decision to carry out a massacre against Israel on October 7, followed up by its deliberate strategy of using its own people as human shields and sacrifices and to repeat October 7 ‘again and again and again’ until Israel is eliminated,” he said.

The Age editor Patrick Elligett. Picture: Twitter

Cartoonist Alan Moir.

Dr Rubenstein also said Mr Netanyahu “has never opposed a Palestinian state in principle but always conditioned it on Palestinian leaders genuinely agreeing to end the conflict and accept a two-state peace”.

“The real impediments to peace are blindingly clear,” he said.

“It’s a pity that Moir cannot see them.”

Other members of the Jewish community who did not wish to be named also condemned the cartoon at the weekend.

“The only thing the cartoon accurately depicts is the weakness of mind and skewed morals that causes far too many people to think that Hamas and the Israeli PM are as bad as each other,” one Jewish community member said.

“We can disagree on matters of policy and security, as Israelis themselves do, but to depict a prime minister and a terrorist side by side is lazy and foolish.”

Another reader who saw the cartoon at the weekend said the illustration “feeds hate and is deeply anti-Semitic and offensive”.

“Congratulations to The Age on crossing the line into deeply ­offensive and anti-Semitic hate speech in Moir’s View cartoon in (Saturday’s) Age”, the person said.

A spokesman for Nine newspapers said on Sunday: “The error was unintentional and has since been corrected.”

The spelling of the Israeli PM’s surname was also incorrect in the cartoon.

It is understood that a complaint has been sent to the Australian Press Council, but the organisation did not comment when contacted on Sunday.

The Australian has chosen not to republish the offending ­cartoon.

Originally published as The Age and the SMH apologise for publishing ‘appalling and ill-informed’ cartoon of the war in Israel