Stones and Hostages

This war is too complicated to say one side is all bad and one side is all good. I think if I took the stance of a conservative cartoonist who only drew cartoons that defended Israel and attacked Hamas, then I wouldn’t be doing my job. Sure, Hamas is bad and evil but it’s much more complicated than that.

After The Washington Post pulled a cartoon by Michael Ramirez that was critical of Hamas using human shields, he went on a news show and while defending his cartoon, expressed sympathy for innocent Palestinian civilians who are being bombed by Israel (for which he blamed Hamas), but he’ll never put that into a cartoon. The issue is too complicated for him and other right-wing cartoonists to grasp. It’s too complicated for them to cover. Merely telling us that Hamas is bad is neither incisive nor informative commentary. A cartoonist doesn’t need to read anything about the situation to draw that other than talking points.

A right-wing cartoonist can risk upsetting liberals, people with basic comprehension skills, or anyone who reads books. But they can’t risk upsetting their base which means they can’t take on the complexities of the situation. One side good, one side bad…grrr. Frankenstein’s monster can do that and he got his brain from Abby Normal.

I’ve drawn cartoons since the war began on October 7th that have criticized Hamas, cartoons that have supported Israel’s right to defend itself from terrorists, and cartoons that have criticized the Israeli government’s Apartheid-like treatment of Palestinians. I have also criticized protesters who use the phrase “from the river to the sea”. And I’ve received heat for each and every single one of them.

It’s been about 40 minutes since I posted this cartoon on Twitter/X and it’s already received criticism from someone complaining that the Palestinians weren’t throwing stones at the Israeli government, but at soldiers. Some people are not good with metaphors or understanding that soldiers are part of a government. Who sent the soldiers? I can’t even with some people.

Israel is trading three Palestinian prisoners for every one of the hostages Hamas releases. You may have the impression that this means three terrorists for every one child. That’s not the case.

The majority of the prisoners currently held in an Israeli prison in the West Bank are male teenagers. None of the men on the list are over 18. The youngest boy on the list is 14 and he’s accused of throwing stones.

The Washington Post reports: There are about 30 women and girls on the list, ranging from teenagers to women in their 30s and 50s. The oldest woman on the list is Hanan Barghouti, 59, who was arrested in connection with suspicion of supporting terrorism. She was taken from her home near Ramallah during an Israeli raid earlier this year.

Israel has not provided much information on each prisoner on the list to be traded but the accusations range from throwing stones to attempted murder. Most of these people haven’t been formally sentenced, and human rights groups have complained about the lack of due process. This prison is like Guantanamo, but even Gitmo isn’t detaining teenagers (it’s not, is it?). Israel is not releasing anyone who’s been convicted of murder. There is a 15-year-old girl on the list who is accused of stabbing a neighbor and another woman who’s accused of attacking an Israeli soldier with a pair of scissors. If these are actual cases of attempted murder, then why haven’t any of them been prosecuted?

Now when Israeli settlers in the West Bank attack Palestinians, they’re almost never prosecuted.

The Israeli human rights group Yesh Din reported that only seven percent of the more than 1,500 investigations of alleged offenses committed by Israeli citizens against Palestinian civilians since 2005 have led to indictments. That’s about the same percentage of white cops indicted for shooting unarmed Black men in the United States. Just kidding. That rate is actually only two percent.

PBS reported that since October 7, 2023, one settler was arrested for the death of an olive farmer and released five days later. Five days? What took so long?

I detest the attacks by Hamas. If you need to be reminded that they’re a terrorist group, just look at the basic fact that they took hostages, many of them being children. But I also detest attacks on Palestinian civilians by Israeli settlers. I detest the way Isreal treats Palestinians. The only solution to this is a two-state one.

I’m not the smartest person and I’m not going to pretend that I can understand every complex detail of the war or the disputes between Israel and Palestinians. But I know I’m trying a hell of a lot harder than my conservative colleagues.

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