It has been claimed that political cartoonist Steve Bell says he was effectively sacked by The Guardian amid accusations of anti-semitism, reports The Times.
“It’s getting more and more impossible to safeguard the freedom you need to be a cartoonist,” Bell told the Morning Star.
“I’ve worked on this paper for 42 years and these kinds of problems have only come up recently. I used to do three editorial cartoons a week. They have cut it right back to three a month and [now] they got rid of it completely.”
The Guardian confirmed that it had no plans to continue working with Bell. “Steve Bell’s cartoons have been an important part of The Guardian over the past 40 years — we thank him and wish him all the best,” it said.
Steve Bell
Majid Freeman wrote: “The Guardian has sacked its own cartoonist Steve Bell who had worked at the paper for over 40 years over a cartoon of Benjamin Netanyahu, which the British daily has labeled an as anti-Semitic.
“How is this anti-semetic? The west continue exposing themselves”
Hamas-Israel
In a statement to the media the Israeli military has said it has confirmed that Hamas is holding 199 hostages in Gaza.
Tory MP James Heappey said Israel’s armed forces were “doing everything they can” to avoid civilian casualties, but terror group Hamas’s use of “human shields” would make the task “incredibly difficult”.
Speaking to Sky News Mr Heappey said: “Israel is doing everything that it reasonably can to tell the civilian population to move.
“I have every confidence that Israel will be precise in its targeting and they’ll have good intelligence about where it needs to target.
“But nobody should pretend that this is going to be anything other than horrific, I’m afraid we’re going to see some awful things over the next few days.”
Israel has called up some 360,000 military reserves ahead of the anticipated offensive, and told people living in Gaza City to move to the south of the slither of land.
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