The Dutch court of appeals fined the Arab European League (AEL), an Arab interest-group and political party active in Belgium and the Netherlands, 2500 Euros on Friday for publishing a cartoon that suggests Jews invented the Holocaust or at least exaggerated its scope.
The cartoon has two suited, big-nosed Jews wearing skullcaps examining a pile of dead bodies under a sign with the, misspelled, word 'Auswitch'. The first one says "I don't think they are Jews". The second, looking at a list, replies "We have to get to the 6,000,000 somehow!".
The court found the cartoon, that first appeared on the AEL's website in 2006 and has been reprinted there often since, "exceptionally grieving and insulting". It ordered Abdoulmouthalib Bouzerda, chairman of the AEL and creator of the cartoon, to remove it and other hurtful cartoons from all websites associated to the AEL within 14 days or risk further fines.
Mr. Bouzerda stated the intention of the cartoonist to expose the double standards of the European society and legal system in light of the affair surrounding the Danish Muhammad-cartoons published in the Jyllands-Posten in 2006. "It's apparently okay to offend Muslims but not Jews", says Bouzerda, who also claims that he placed a disclaimer by the cartoon to illustrate that its only intention was to "spark a public debate".
However, the Hon. R. van der Heuvel, the presiding judge of the court of appeals, found that "the cartoon's grieving and insulting nature is far greater than is justified for the stated goal of sparking a debate". Furhtermore, he found that the disclaimer was in many cases absent and in others hidden away at the bottom of a page after a "read more"-link. In his ruling, he wrote that "It cannot be expected of internet-users to actually want to 'read more' after viewing such a shocking cartoon."
In a brief statement to FightHatred.com, the Hon. R. van der Heuvel remarked that "the Holocaust is a pitch-black page in the history of mankind. The very suggestion that it has been exaggerated or invented, by the victims no less, is exceptionally hurtful for the victims, the survivors, their families and all Jews". He added that "there is no question at all that the cartoon itself is offensive and discriminatory to Jews" and that it paints Jews as "untrustworthy". He pointed out that "while the European Court for Human Rights attaches great significance to the defense of freedom of speech, denying or trivializing the Holocaust is specifically excepted".
This is hardly the first time the AEL has been charged of inciting hatred and anti-Semitism. In a demonstration they organized in 2002, Israeli flags were burned as the AEL's founder, Dyab Abou Jahjah was heard shouting "Jews are dogs". Before moving back to Lebanon in 2006 to help Hezbollah in its war against Israel, Jahjah was invited to several fora where he defended Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's genocidal remarks towards Jews, calling them "the only moral position" to hold.
A spokesman for the plaintiff, the Center for Information and Documentation Israel, told FightHatred.com that the organization is "very pleased". "We have said all along that the AEL's anger concerning the Muhammad-cartoons should in no way result in offensive expressions about Jews. It is evident that this cartoon had no other intention than being unnecessarily hurtful to Jews".
The lawyer for the AEL, Mr. Anis Boumanjal, told FightHatred.com that his client "made the context of the cartoons very clear to the court" and added that he is "perplexed and disappointed" by the ruling. He said the AEL would comply with the court's request to remove the cartoons and that no plans to appeal this ruling to the Dutch High Court are currently on the table. Mr. Bouzerda was not available for comment.
