International Holocaust Cartoon Competition

This cartoon by Carlos Latuff won second prize.

International Holocaust Cartoon Contest was a cartoon competition sponsored by the Iranian newspaper Hamshahri, to denounce what it called "Western hypocrisy on freedom of speech". The event was staged in response to the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy,^[1] and to challenge Western accounts of the Holocaust.^[2]

In January 2015, in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo shooting and the magazines subsequent decision to publish further cartoons of Muhammad, the Iranian House of Cartoon and the Sarcheshmeh Cultural Complex in Iran announced that they would be sponsoring The 2nd International Holocaust Cartoons Contest. The deadline for entries has been set for 1 April 2015, with the winners to be announced at a later date. ^[3]

The Contest

On February 6, 2006, Farid Mortazavi, graphics editor of Hamshahri, announced a competition for cartoons on the Holocaust. The twelve best contributions were to be rewarded with a gold coin each, which were later increased to $5,000 to $12,000 prizes for the top 3 cartoons and 3 gold coins each for 12 other cartoonists. Later, Hamshahri published an English introduction to the contest, as well as preliminary rules. The contest was created in response to the twelve cartoons published by the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten (see Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy) to challenge the championing of freedom of speech in the defense of the Jyllands-Posten cartoons. This was done under the notion that those who supported the Jyllands-Posten's right to free anti-Islamic speech would be placed in a precarious position were they to condemn the antisemitic cartoons targeted at one of the most sensitive of Jewish topics. In that introductory message for the contest, Hamshahri denounced what they called Western hypocrisy on freedom of speech, alleging that "it is impossible in the West to joke upon or even discuss certain topics related to Judaism, such as the Holocaust, and the pretexts for the creation of Israel."

On February 14, 2006, the editor in chief of Hamshahri commented in Persian that "the purpose of establishing such a competition is not to offend or ridicule anyone, but to do a discussion about the realities of the Holocaust." He also indicated that Hamshahri tries really hard not to cause pain for anyone and also added that the newspaper has no contention with the Jews in Iran or any other place, but that it has problems with Zionism.^[4] Masood Shojaei, the director of Iran’s Caricature House which cosponsored the competition also said: "Iran’s Caricature House, as the only technically qualified center involved in the competition regards the Holocaust topic as a terrible and saddening issue".^[5] The exhibition put on by The Iran Cartoon Organisation and Hamshahri newspaper opened on August 14, 2006.

After the winners were announced in November 2006, Shojaei said the competition would become an annual event. The Associated Press quoted him as saying "Actually, we will continue until the destruction of Israel".^[6] However, Shojaei categorically denies that he even spoke to the Associated Press reporter.^[7]

Reactions in Iran

Conservatives

Conservative newspapers such as Kayhan and Jomhouri Eslami have hailed the decision by Hamshahri for the contest, and their cartoonists, such as Maziyar Bizhani have actively entered the competition.

Reformers

Several reformers criticized the cartoon competition and also the president's statements about the Holocaust. Emadoddin Baghi, a famous member of religious-intellectuals circle, Ebrahim Yazdi, the head of Nehzat Azadi Party, Hamid Reza Jalaeipour, a prominent figure of Islamic Iran Participation Front and Sadeq Zibakalam, a prominent political analyst of the Kargozaran party criticized these new policies by calling them "useless, scientifically-baseless and purely political actions which originates from the authorities' lack of historical knowledge". In an interview with BBC, Nikahang Kowsar, a former cartoonist for Hamshahri, said he thought the competition was the wrong approach. "It's a bad reaction to a bad action coming from the Danish newspaper", he told the BBC. He also claimed in his weblog that, Hamshahri cartoonists will have a bad fate if they refuse to take part in the competition.^[8]

International reactions

On February 8, Flemming Rose (the cultural editor for Jyllands-Posten), told CNN: "My newspaper is trying to establish a contact with that Iranian newspaper Hamshahri, and we would run the cartoons the same day as they publish them". Later that day, the paper's editor-in-chief said that Jyllands-posten would under no circumstances publish the Holocaust cartoons.^[9]

On February 14, 2006, the Hamshahri website suffered a denial-of-service attack. Simultaneously, the websites of Iran's ministry of education and two major Iranian banks, Sepah Bank and Refah Bank, became inaccessible, as they were all hosted by the same backbone.

Six of the least controversial cartoons of the International Holocaust Cartoon Competition were republished by Danish Newspaper Dagbladet Information on September 8, 2006 after the editor consulted the main rabbi in Copenhagen,^[10] and three cartoons were later reprinted in Jyllands-Posten as well.^[11]

The event was also criticised by the then United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan,^[12] the U.S. State Department,^[12] the Israeli foreign ministry, Reporters Without Borders, the Anti-Defamation League^[13] and other parties.^[14]

The winners

On November 1, 2006, political cartoonist Abdellah Derkaoui (Arabic: عبدالله درقاوي‎), a Moroccan, was announced as the winner and received the first prize of US$12,000. Derkaoui's winning cartoon differed from many of the runners-up, in that it did not deny the Holocaust; instead, it used the Holocaust to make a comparison between the actions of Nazi Germany and the current actions of the Israeli government.^[15] Derkaoui's work is also featured on the web site of MSNBC cartoonist Daryl Cagle.^[16]

The second prize of US$8,000 was split to Brazilian cartoonist Carlos Latuff and far-right cartoonist Chard, from France, although Chard refused the prize, stating that her cartoon was entered into the competition without her consent. According to the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, the cartoon by Chard contains explicit Holocaust denial.^[17]

Shahram Rezai of Iran won the third prize of US$5,000. In addition to the main prizes, there were also 'Special Prizes' awarded to several entries, in which each was awarded with three gold coins. One of these prizes went to Italy, one prize to Morocco, two to Jordan, one to Syria, two to Brazil, and five went to Iranians.^[18]

See also

• Council for Spreading Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's Thoughts
• Everybody Draw Mohammed Day
• International Conference to Review the Global Vision of the Holocaust
• Israeli Anti-Semitic Cartoons Contest

References

External links

• The Winners of the Competition (mirror)
• The Iran Cartoon Organisation (Persian)
• The Iran Cartoon Organisation (English)