Carlos Latuff
Encyclopedia
Carlos Latuff is a Brazilian freelance
political cartoonist. His works deal with an array of themes, including anti-globalization
, anti-capitalism
, anti-Semitism
, and anti-U.S. military intervention. Moreover, the issue that he is best known for, are his images depicting the Israeli–Palestinian conflict
and, more recently, the Arab Spring
events. Latuff himself has described his work as controversial.
), Brazil, and is of Lebanese
ancestry; in his own words he said he has "Arab
roots".
Le Monde Diplomatique
and the The Toronto Star. In addition, a few of his works were published on Arab websites and publications such as the Islamic Front for the Iraqi Resistance
(JAMI) magazine, the Saudi magazine Character, the Lebanese newspaper Al Akhbar
, among others.
, which according to his claims : "became important to Latuff after he visited the area in the late 1990s." These cartoons are heavily critical of Israel
and have drawn criticism and allegations of uninhibited utilization of "judeophobic stereotype
s in the service of the anti-globalisation movement."
In his We are all Palestinians cartoon series, various famous oppressed groups, including Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto
, Black South Africa
ns during Apartheid, Native Americans
, and Tibet
ans in China
, are all shown stating "I am Palestinian".
Latuff has also made a series of cartoons that portray Israeli Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon
, United States
President George W. Bush
, Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
and British
PM Tony Blair
among other politicians as monsters and as Nazis.
Latuff is also critical of US military action in Iraq and Afghanistan. He has made promotional cartoons for anti-US militancy as well as cartoons alleging US actions have been motivated by the chance of making profit from oil. Among the cartoons, there are also some that portray US soldiers as severely wounded, dead, or paraplegic or as harming Iraqi civilians.
In his comic series Tales of Iraq War he portrays "Juba, the Baghdad sniper
", an Iraqi insurgency
character claimed to have shot down several-dozen US soldiers, as a "superhero". He has also made a caricature of US President George W. Bush laughing over US casualties.
Since the end of 2010, he's been consistently engaged in producing cartoons about the Arab Spring
in which he openly sided with the revolutionaries. After the victory of revolutions in Tunisia
, Egypt
and Libya
his cartoons about these countries have focused on the menace of counter-revolution or Western interference
. Some of his cartoons have been displayed in mass demonstrations in Arab countries.
(an Israeli NGO), for allegedly containing antisemitism.
In 2002 the Swiss
-based Holocaust survivors organization Aktion Kinder des Holocaust
sued the Indymedia
of Switzerland on the charge of anti-Semitism
for publishing Latuff's cartoon titled We are all Palestinians series in their website, which depicted a Jewish boy in Warsaw Ghetto
saying: "I am Palestinian." The criminal proceedings were suspended by Swiss court.
In 2006, Latuff placed second and won $4,000, for his cartoon comparing the Israel
i West Bank barrier with the Nazi concentration camps, in the controversial Iran
ian 'International Holocaust Cartoon Competition'.
The contest was created in response to Muhammad cartoons published by a Danish newspaper (see Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy
), under the notion that those who supported the right to free speech in matters concerning Islam would be placed in a precarious position were they to condemn the antisemitic cartoons aimed to mock and ridicule the Jewish Holocaust.
Latuff's entry was described as "Holocaust inversion," a "motif" of antisemitism, by Manfred Gerstenfeld
.
In their 2003 Annual Report, the Stephen Roth Institute
compared Latuff's cartoons of Sharon
to "the antisemitic caricatures of Philipp Rupprecht
in Julius Streicher
's Der Stürmer
."
The SRI also complained over a cartoon showing Che Guevara
in a Palestinian keffiyeh
.
Joel Kotek a professor at Belgium’s Free University of Brussels
, in his book “Cartoons and Extremism” calls Latuff “the contemporary Drumont of the internet.”( Edouard Drumont was the founder of the French “Antisemitic League of France
” and the publisher of "La Libre Parole", a magazine that printed numerous classically antisemitic cartoons during the years of the Dreyfus Affair
).
in December 2008, Latuff responded to charges of antisemitism and the comparison to Streicher:
He has yet to respond to criticism over his use of old-fashioned anti-Jewish stereotypes, such as the blood libel
, which appears in many of his cartoons.
Freelancer
A freelancer, freelance worker, or freelance is somebody who is self-employed and is not committed to a particular employer long term. These workers are often represented by a company or an agency that resells their labor and that of others to its clients with or without project management and...
political cartoonist. His works deal with an array of themes, including anti-globalization
Anti-globalization
Criticism of globalization is skepticism of the claimed benefits of the globalization of capitalism. Many of these views are held by the anti-globalization movement however other groups also are critical of the policies of globalization....
, anti-capitalism
Anti-capitalism
Anti-capitalism describes a wide variety of movements, ideas, and attitudes which oppose capitalism. Anti-capitalists, in the strict sense of the word, are those who wish to completely replace capitalism with another system....
, anti-Semitism
Anti-Semitism
Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...
, and anti-U.S. military intervention. Moreover, the issue that he is best known for, are his images depicting the Israeli–Palestinian conflict
Israeli–Palestinian conflict
The Israeli–Palestinian conflict is the ongoing conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. The conflict is wide-ranging, and the term is also used in reference to the earlier phases of the same conflict, between Jewish and Zionist yishuv and the Arab population living in Palestine under Ottoman or...
and, more recently, the Arab Spring
Arab Spring
The Arab Spring , otherwise known as the Arab Awakening, is a revolutionary wave of demonstrations and protests occurring in the Arab world that began on Saturday, 18 December 2010...
events. Latuff himself has described his work as controversial.
Early life
Latuff was born in São Cristóvão (Rio de JaneiroRio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
), Brazil, and is of Lebanese
Lebanese people
The Lebanese people are a nation and ethnic group of Levantine people originating in what is today the country of Lebanon, including those who had inhabited Mount Lebanon prior to the creation of the modern Lebanese state....
ancestry; in his own words he said he has "Arab
Arab
Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...
roots".
Published works
Latuff's works have been posted mostly by himself on Indymedia websites and private blogs. However, some of them have been picked up and featured in magazines such as the Brazilian edition of MadMad (magazine)
Mad is an American humor magazine founded by editor Harvey Kurtzman and publisher William Gaines in 1952. Launched as a comic book before it became a magazine, it was widely imitated and influential, impacting not only satirical media but the entire cultural landscape of the 20th century.The last...
Le Monde Diplomatique
Le Monde diplomatique
Le Monde diplomatique is a monthly newspaper offering analysis and opinion on politics, culture, and current affairs. It was first created mainly for a diplomatic audience as its name implies...
and the The Toronto Star. In addition, a few of his works were published on Arab websites and publications such as the Islamic Front for the Iraqi Resistance
Islamic Front for the Iraqi Resistance
The Islamic Front for the Iraqi Resistance abbreviated JAMI, is an insurgent group in Iraq, fighting the U.S. led coalition as a part of the Iraqi Insurgency...
(JAMI) magazine, the Saudi magazine Character, the Lebanese newspaper Al Akhbar
Al Akhbar (Lebanon)
-History:The newspaper started printing and distribution in July 2006. It was established by Joseph Samaha and Brahim El Ameen, both considered to be among the most renowned Lebanese journalists. Samaha died from a stroke few months after the publishing of the paper...
, among others.
Themes
A vast number of Latuff's cartoons are related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflictIsraeli-Palestinian conflict
The Israeli–Palestinian conflict is the ongoing conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. The conflict is wide-ranging, and the term is also used in reference to the earlier phases of the same conflict, between Jewish and Zionist yishuv and the Arab population living in Palestine under Ottoman or...
, which according to his claims : "became important to Latuff after he visited the area in the late 1990s." These cartoons are heavily critical of Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
and have drawn criticism and allegations of uninhibited utilization of "judeophobic stereotype
Stereotype
A stereotype is a popular belief about specific social groups or types of individuals. The concepts of "stereotype" and "prejudice" are often confused with many other different meanings...
s in the service of the anti-globalisation movement."
In his We are all Palestinians cartoon series, various famous oppressed groups, including Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto
Warsaw Ghetto
The Warsaw Ghetto was the largest of all Jewish Ghettos in Nazi-occupied Europe during World War II. It was established in the Polish capital between October and November 15, 1940, in the territory of General Government of the German-occupied Poland, with over 400,000 Jews from the vicinity...
, Black South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
ns during Apartheid, Native Americans
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
, and Tibet
Tibet
Tibet is a plateau region in Asia, north-east of the Himalayas. It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people as well as some other ethnic groups such as Monpas, Qiang, and Lhobas, and is now also inhabited by considerable numbers of Han and Hui people...
ans in China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, are all shown stating "I am Palestinian".
Latuff has also made a series of cartoons that portray Israeli Prime Minister
Prime minister
A prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. In many systems, the prime minister selects and may dismiss other members of the cabinet, and allocates posts to members within the government. In most systems, the prime...
Ariel Sharon
Ariel Sharon
Ariel Sharon is an Israeli statesman and retired general, who served as Israel’s 11th Prime Minister. He has been in a permanent vegetative state since suffering a stroke on 4 January 2006....
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
President George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
, Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva , known popularly as Lula, served as the 35th President of Brazil from 2003 to 2010.A founding member of the Workers' Party , he ran for President three times unsuccessfully, first in the 1989 election. Lula achieved victory in the 2002 election, and was inaugurated as...
and British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
PM Tony Blair
Tony Blair
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
among other politicians as monsters and as Nazis.
Latuff is also critical of US military action in Iraq and Afghanistan. He has made promotional cartoons for anti-US militancy as well as cartoons alleging US actions have been motivated by the chance of making profit from oil. Among the cartoons, there are also some that portray US soldiers as severely wounded, dead, or paraplegic or as harming Iraqi civilians.
In his comic series Tales of Iraq War he portrays "Juba, the Baghdad sniper
Juba (sniper)
Juba is the pseudonym of an alleged sniper involved in the Iraqi Insurgency featured in several propaganda videos. The second of these videos shows Juba claiming to have shot 37 American soldiers...
", an Iraqi insurgency
Iraqi insurgency
The Iraqi Resistance is composed of a diverse mix of militias, foreign fighters, all-Iraqi units or mixtures opposing the United States-led multinational force in Iraq and the post-2003 Iraqi government...
character claimed to have shot down several-dozen US soldiers, as a "superhero". He has also made a caricature of US President George W. Bush laughing over US casualties.
Since the end of 2010, he's been consistently engaged in producing cartoons about the Arab Spring
Arab Spring
The Arab Spring , otherwise known as the Arab Awakening, is a revolutionary wave of demonstrations and protests occurring in the Arab world that began on Saturday, 18 December 2010...
in which he openly sided with the revolutionaries. After the victory of revolutions in Tunisia
Tunisia
Tunisia , officially the Tunisian RepublicThe long name of Tunisia in other languages used in the country is: , is the northernmost country in Africa. It is a Maghreb country and is bordered by Algeria to the west, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Its area...
, Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
and Libya
Libya
Libya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....
his cartoons about these countries have focused on the menace of counter-revolution or Western interference
Imperialism
Imperialism, as defined by Dictionary of Human Geography, is "the creation and/or maintenance of an unequal economic, cultural, and territorial relationships, usually between states and often in the form of an empire, based on domination and subordination." The imperialism of the last 500 years,...
. Some of his cartoons have been displayed in mass demonstrations in Arab countries.
Criticism
His works were criticized by a writer for the Institute for Global Jewish Affairs, part of the Jerusalem Center for Public AffairsJerusalem Center for Public Affairs
The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs is a public policy think tank devoted to research and analysis of critical issues facing the Middle East. The center is located in Jerusalem, Israel...
(an Israeli NGO), for allegedly containing antisemitism.
In 2002 the Swiss
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
-based Holocaust survivors organization Aktion Kinder des Holocaust
Aktion Kinder des Holocaust
Aktion Kinder des Holocaust also known by its initials AKdH is an international community of descendants of survivors of the Holocaust and World War II antifascist resistance, together with their relatives and friends. It is constituted as a club under Article 60ff CC of Swiss law...
sued the Indymedia
Independent Media Center
The Independent Media Center is a global participatory network of journalists that report on political and social issues. It originated during the Seattle anti-WTO protests worldwide in 1999 and remains closely associated with the global justice movement, which criticizes neo-liberalism and its...
of Switzerland on the charge of anti-Semitism
Anti-Semitism
Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...
for publishing Latuff's cartoon titled We are all Palestinians series in their website, which depicted a Jewish boy in Warsaw Ghetto
Warsaw Ghetto
The Warsaw Ghetto was the largest of all Jewish Ghettos in Nazi-occupied Europe during World War II. It was established in the Polish capital between October and November 15, 1940, in the territory of General Government of the German-occupied Poland, with over 400,000 Jews from the vicinity...
saying: "I am Palestinian." The criminal proceedings were suspended by Swiss court.
In 2006, Latuff placed second and won $4,000, for his cartoon comparing the Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
i West Bank barrier with the Nazi concentration camps, in the controversial Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
ian 'International Holocaust Cartoon Competition'.
The contest was created in response to Muhammad cartoons published by a Danish newspaper (see Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy
Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy
The Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy began after 12 editorial cartoons, most of which depicted the Islamic prophet Muhammad, were published in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten on 30 September 2005...
), under the notion that those who supported the right to free speech in matters concerning Islam would be placed in a precarious position were they to condemn the antisemitic cartoons aimed to mock and ridicule the Jewish Holocaust.
Latuff's entry was described as "Holocaust inversion," a "motif" of antisemitism, by Manfred Gerstenfeld
Manfred Gerstenfeld
Manfred Gerstenfeld is an Austrian-born Israeli author and political activist.-Biography:Manfred Gerstenfeld was born in Vienna, grew up in Amsterdam and moved to Israel in 1968. He has a Ph.D. in Environmental Studies from the University of Amsterdam. Gerstenfeld was a board member of the Israel...
.
In their 2003 Annual Report, the Stephen Roth Institute
Stephen Roth Institute
The Stephen Roth Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism and Racism is a research institute at Tel Aviv University in Israel. It is a resource for information, provides a forum for academic discussion, and fosters research on issues concerning antisemitic and racist theories and...
compared Latuff's cartoons of Sharon
Ariel Sharon
Ariel Sharon is an Israeli statesman and retired general, who served as Israel’s 11th Prime Minister. He has been in a permanent vegetative state since suffering a stroke on 4 January 2006....
to "the antisemitic caricatures of Philipp Rupprecht
Philipp Rupprecht
Philipp Rupprecht was a German cartoonist best known for his antisemitic caricatures in the Nazi publication Der Stürmer, under the pen-name Fips.-Career:...
in Julius Streicher
Julius Streicher
Julius Streicher was a prominent Nazi prior to World War II. He was the founder and publisher of Der Stürmer newspaper, which became a central element of the Nazi propaganda machine...
's Der Stürmer
Der Stürmer
Der Stürmer was a weekly tabloid-format Nazi newspaper published by Julius Streicher from 1923 to the end of World War II in 1945, with brief suspensions in publication due to legal difficulties. It was a significant part of the Nazi propaganda machinery and was vehemently anti-Semitic...
."
The SRI also complained over a cartoon showing Che Guevara
Che Guevara
Ernesto "Che" Guevara , commonly known as el Che or simply Che, was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, intellectual, guerrilla leader, diplomat and military theorist...
in a Palestinian keffiyeh
Keffiyeh
The keffiyeh/kufiya , also known as a ghutrah , ' , mashadah , shemagh or in Persian chafiye , Kurdish cemedanî and Turkish puşi, is a traditional Arab headdress fashioned from a square, usually cotton, scarf. It is typically worn by Arab men, as well as some Kurds...
.
Joel Kotek a professor at Belgium’s Free University of Brussels
Free University of Brussels
The Free University of Brussels was a university in Brussels, Belgium. In 1969, it split into the Université Libre de Bruxelles and the Dutch-speaking Vrije Universiteit Brussel....
, in his book “Cartoons and Extremism” calls Latuff “the contemporary Drumont of the internet.”( Edouard Drumont was the founder of the French “Antisemitic League of France
Antisemitic League of France
The Antisemitic League of France was founded in 1889 by the journalist Edouard Drumont. First known under the name of Ligue nationale antisémitique de France or Ligue antisémite française , this nationalist league was created in the midst of the Dreyfus Affair...
” and the publisher of "La Libre Parole", a magazine that printed numerous classically antisemitic cartoons during the years of the Dreyfus Affair
Dreyfus Affair
The Dreyfus affair was a political scandal that divided France in the 1890s and the early 1900s. It involved the conviction for treason in November 1894 of Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a young French artillery officer of Alsatian Jewish descent...
).
Response
In an interview with the Jewish-American weekly newspaper The ForwardThe Forward
The Forward , commonly known as The Jewish Daily Forward, is a Jewish-American newspaper published in New York City. The publication began in 1897 as a Yiddish-language daily issued by dissidents from the Socialist Labor Party of Daniel DeLeon...
in December 2008, Latuff responded to charges of antisemitism and the comparison to Streicher:
My cartoons have no focus on the Jews or on Judaism. My focus is Israel as a political entity, as a government, their armed forces being a satellite of U.S. interests in the Middle East, and especially Israeli policies toward the Palestinians. It happens to be Israeli Jews that are the oppressors of Palestinians.…My detractors say that the use of the Magen David in my Israel-related cartoons is irrefutable proof of antisemitism; however, it’s not my fault if Israel chose sacred religious motifs as national symbolsNational symbolsA national symbol is a symbol of any entity considering itself and manifesting itself to the world as a national community – namely sovereign states, but also nations and countries in a state of colonial or other dependence, federal integration, or even an ethnocultural community considered a...
, such as the Knesset MenorahKnesset MenorahThe Knesset Menorah is a bronze monument about five meters high, that is located at the edge of Gan Havradim in front of the Knesset. Built by Benno Elkan, a British-Jewish sculptor who worked on it for 6 years, the Parliament of the United Kingdom gave it to Israel in 1956...
or the Star of DavidStar of DavidThe Star of David, known in Hebrew as the Shield of David or Magen David is a generally recognized symbol of Jewish identity and Judaism.Its shape is that of a hexagram, the compound of two equilateral triangles...
in killing-machines like F-16 jets.
He has yet to respond to criticism over his use of old-fashioned anti-Jewish stereotypes, such as the blood libel
Blood libel
Blood libel is a false accusation or claim that religious minorities, usually Jews, murder children to use their blood in certain aspects of their religious rituals and holidays...
, which appears in many of his cartoons.
External links
- Latuff's official page on TwitpicTwitpicTwitPic is a website that allows users to easily post pictures to the Twitter microblogging and social media service. TwitPic is often used by citizen journalists to upload and distribute pictures in near real-time as an event is taking place.-History:...
- Latuff's official page on DeviantArtDeviantArtdeviantART is an online community showcasing various forms of user-made artwork. It was first launched on August 7, 2000 by Scott Jarkoff, Matthew Stephens, Angelo Sotira and others. deviantArt, Inc...