Obamatoongate reminds me of a similar case back in 2003 involving Dave Brown, a political cartoonist for The Independent.
Brown depicted the then Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon eating a Palestinian child during an election campaign. The cartoon came under fire for being antisemitic by invoking the blood libel slur against Jews. The Independent had to defend itself against (the admittedly toothless) Press Complaints Commission. Brown, and his defenders, argued they were satirising Sharon’s election campaign and Brown had alluded to Francisco Goya’s frightening painting, Saturn Devouring His Son, rather than an ancient anti-Jewish slur.
The critics agreed with Brown; his cartoon won an award that year.
(Perhaps more ’shocking’ would be the fact that as Saturn had to be eating his own children, then Sharon had to be eating one of his own too, i.e. the Palestinian child had to be his own.)
