Norway Cartoon May be Hate Crime, European Jewish Congress Says
by JNS.org
JNS.org – The European Jewish Congress (EJC) may take legal action against a Norwegian newspaper over a cartoon in Dagbladet, one of Norway’s leading newspapers, that “depicted circumcision in a blood-thirsty-demonic manner,” the EJC said in a press release.
The drawing, which showed police looking on as a man in a black hat and coat pierces the head of a bloodied baby with a pitchfork in the name of “tradition,” fell outside “the boundaries of freedom of speech,” said EJC President Dr. Moshe Kantor. The Simon Wiesenthal Center said the drawing would “make Hitler and Himmler weep tears of joy.”
“We are now studying the possibility that this legally constitutes incitement and even a hate crime and will therefore require legal action,” Kantor said. Tomas Drefvelin, in an email to a Norwegian pro-Israel organization, said his intention was not to draw Jews, adding that his point was a “general criticism of religions.”