Israel

White House disinvites tainted cartoonist

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The White House on Wednesday withdrew an invitation to political cartoonist Ben Garrison, who has been accused by the Anti-Defamation League of drawing a “blatantly anti-Semitic” illustration. The invite, to a White House social-media summit scheduled for this Thursday, sparked condemnation from Jewish groups ranging from the ADL to the Republican Jewish Coalition

“I had a number of email and phone conversations the last two days with the White House on the issue,” RJC spokesperson Neil Strauss told JNS on Wednesday. “I explained the RJC stance that this invite was a mistake, and we didn’t think Garrison should be welcomed to the White House or as a participant in this event. The White House was very responsive to our concerns and, in a related note, I will be attending and participating in the summit, representing the RJC.”

Garrison’s history of anti-Semitic cartoons includes one in 2017 of then-U.S. National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster and retired U.S. Gen. David Petraeus on strings controlled by Jewish billionaire George Soros, who is also dangled on strings controlled by a hand from a single arm labeled “Rothschilds,” referring to the iconic Jewish philanthropic family from the United Kingdom that has been a common target of anti-Semitic conspiracies.

Facebook and Twitter have reportedly not been invited to the summit, which is being held as conservatives have criticized social networking cites of censoring right-wing content.

“It is completely unacceptable that the Trump Administration would invite someone to the White House who has been known to write anti-Semitic cartoons,” U.S. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) told JNS. “The Trump Administration continues to create an environment where hateful speech, including anti-Semitism, is condoned. The President ought to revoke his invitation immediately.”

“Hopefully, the president is not aware of the anti-Semitic quality of the [McMaster-Petraeus-Soros-Rothschild] cartoon so that he, when he gets aware, he should revoke the invitation immediately,” Sarah Stern, founder and president of the Endowment for Middle East truth, told JNS on Sunday evening.

“#Anti-Semitism becomes normalized when obvious examples, like grossly #antiSemitic cartoons, are overlooked. Just as cartoons of this sort shouldn’t be published anywhere, cartoonists who produce such hate shouldn’t be invited to the White House. We call on WH to rescind invite,” tweeted ADL CEO and national director Jonathan Greenblatt.

“We strongly condemn President Trump’s invitation to anti-Semitic cartoonist Ben Garrison to the White House Social Media Summit later this week. Despite Garrison’s record using social media to promulgate hate and disinformation, the White House has opened its doors to him, while reportedly excluding Twitter and Facebook representatives,” Jewish Democratic Council of America executive director Halie Soifer told JNS. “This invitation demonstrates that the Trump administration condones Garrison’s anti-Semitic imagery, as well as his use of social media to spread hate.”

“We call on President Trump to immediately revoke Garrison’s invitation to the White House and denounce white supremacy, which he has refused to do,” she continued. “There is no question that President Trump’s actions, policies and rhetoric have contributed to a rise in hatred and bigotry in the United States, and we condemn it in the strongest possible terms.”

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The Republican Jewish Coalition said: “We are very concerned by his past cartoons. We have an active conversation with the White House on this and are working with them on it.”

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