Sunday Times apologizes for offensive cartoon

The Sunday Times of London apologized for publishing an editorial cartoon depicting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu building a wall on the bodies of Palestinians and using their blood as cement.

“We apologize unreservedly,” the paper said Feb. 3 for the cartoon by regular Sunday Times cartoonist Gerald Scarfe, which was printed a week earlier, on International Holocaust Memorial Day.

“The image would have been a mistake on any day but the fact that last Sunday was Holocaust Memorial Day compounded the error,” the Sunday Times wrote.

Critics called the drawing reminiscent of anti-Semitic blood libels.

Scarfe earlier had apologized “for the very unfortunate timing” of the publication, but did not apologize for the content of his cartoon. — jta