New York, NY, June 18, 2007 … As Palestinian groups battled for control of Gaza, editorial cartoons appearing in newspapers across the Arab world blamed Israel for the violence with vicious anti-Semitic caricatures and motifs showing Jews as encouraging and mocking the strife between Palestinian rivals Hamas and Fatah.

Some cartoons even blamed Jews, Israel and the United States for playing a behind-the-scenes role in provoking the conflict, according to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which monitors and exposes anti-Semitism in Muslim/Arab media.

The League has compiled anti-Semitic and anti-Israel cartoons from the Arab press commenting on the Gaza chaos.

"The Arab press has once again used the troubling events in Gaza as an excuse to blame Jews and Israel and spread disinformation on the Arab street," said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director. "They dredge up vicious anti-Jewish images and stereotypes and perpetuate lies about Israel's role in the Gaza violence.  Pure and simple this is incitement to bigotry, to hatred and to anti-Semitism."

One cartoon from Al-Watan in Qatar shows Israel, embodied as an Orthodox Jew with stereotypical features, a black hat and side locks, laughing out loud as he reads a newspaper headline declaring, "The Palestinian-Palestinian Conflict" (June 17). 

Other images from Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, Lebanon, Egypt, Syria, Algeria, Kuwait and the Palestinian Authority portray Jews as digging Palestinian graves as the factions do battle, Israelis as the true victors in the strife, or the U.S. using Israel as a hammer to drive a wedge between Palestinian unity.

The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world's leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry.