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Rabat – A cartoon from leftist French daily newspaper Liberation triggered widespread anger and backlash for mocking the devastating humanitarian crisis in Gaza during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
Posted on Liberation’s official X page, the cartoon depicts a family sitting among the ruins next to someone whose entire body is buried under the rubble, except for one hand sticking out. The husband in the cartoon is shown to be salivating while running after rats and bugs, while his wife slaps his hand and says “Not before sunset.”
The cartoon also depicts a child sitting next to the wife who also looks to be salivating while looking at the fleeing rats with wide eyes.
The cartoon from Liberation posted on X
Titled “Ramadan in Gaza – The start of a fasting month,” the cartoon was made by Corinne Rey, a former cartoonist at the infamous satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.
The post has drawn widespread backlash from social media users, with many lashing out at the French magazine for the insensitive content.
“One must truly lack empathy to laugh at a genocide. Lacking empathy is to not be human, and such individuals disgust me deeply,” one commenter said under Liberation’s post on X. “Morality prohibits me from explicitly expressing all the disgust you elicit.
Shame on the editorial team that publishes a disgustingly racist and dehumanizing cartoon in the print newspaper and tweets it out,” wrote another commenter. “For @libe as well as for Israel, Palestinians are considered “human animals.”
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On social media, many have said the cartoon clearly mocks the famine in Gaza. Others maintained that the cartoon used famine as a tool to mock Islam and the act of fasting, implying that even while suffering from hunger, Muslims would refrain from eating.
Meanwhile, a third group of outraged commenters have pointed out the double standards in the French media, asking why such a cartoon was never made for the Russia-Ukraine war.
Since the start of Israel’s war in Gaza, Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) have murdered over 31,000 Palestinians, with most casualties recorded among children and unarmed civilians.
Over 72,700 others have been injured as IOF’s air strikes and ground operations continue to cause mass destruction in Gaza.
The blockade that Israel has imposed on Gaza is pushing the Palestinian people to the brink of starvation, with converging reports indicating that dozens of children are dying of malnutrition.
Israel is now facing a lawsuit at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), where it stands accused of committing genocide against the Palestinian people. Last January, an ICJ ruling ordered the Israeli government to take all necessary measures to spare civilian lives.
However, the IOF has manifestly disregarded the ruling and continued to invade the last urban era in Gaza, the border town of Rafah, leaving Palestinians nowhere to hide.
