Anti-Semitism accusation for a cartoon depicting Facebook founder with a long nose!

The German cartoonist Burkhard Mohr has published a cartoon in the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung depicting the American Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in the form of an octopus trying to control the companies specialized in the Internet; a cartoon that criticizes WhatsApp Purchase by Facebook.

Since Zuckerberg is of a Jewish origin, the cartoonist has been accused of anti-Semitism, just for depicting Zuckerberg with a long nose, where several newspapers and news sites have conveyed a statement of anti-Semitism hunter "Simon Wiesenthal" Center's president, saying to the Israeli "Jerusalem Post" newspaper that it blatantly reminds us of the Nazi cartoon published in 1938 which depicted Winston Churchill as a Jewish octopus encircling the globe." He added by comparing Zuckerberg's real nose and the nose in the cartoon, "if an­yo­ne has any doubts about the an­ti-​Se­mi­tic di­men­si­on of the car­toon, we can point to Mark Zucker­berg’s very pro­mi­nent nose, which is not the case in real life."

Burkhard Mohr, who was born in 1959, hurried to send a letter of apology to "Jerusalem Post" newspaper in which he said " An­ti-​Se­mi­tism and ra­cism are ideo­lo­gies which are to­tal­ly for­eign to me." Mohr said that he was "shocked" by what he heard of criticism about this cartoon, adding that those who know him and his drawings know that " it is the last thing I would do, to de­fa­me peop­le be­cau­se of their na­tio­na­li­ty, re­li­gious view or ori­gin ". He strictly refused to view his cartoon as "anti-Jewish agi­ta­ti­on", and said that his cartoon was " is a com­bi­na­ti­on of an oc­to­pus from the film the Pi­ra­tes of Ca­rib­be­an.".

Additionally, he wrote that his cartoon "did not deal with Mr. Zu­cker­berg, [but] ra­ther Face­book. I am sorry that it led to this mi­sun­der­stan­ding and hurt the fee­lings of some re­a­ders."

Sacha Staw­ski, the head of the Media Watch­dog Or­ga­niza­t­i­on in Germany, has supported the accusations and said to the same newspaper, " Every ci­ti­zen has the right to be con­cer­ned about the in­va­si­on of his or her pri­va­cy, whe ther it be in re­gards to Goog­le, Face­book … And one may even com­pa­re such a mul­ti­fold in va­si­on into all areas of our pri­va­cy to the creeping arms of an oc­to­pus. So far so good."

Then she added, "The pro­blem be­gins, howe­ver, when one re­pla­ces the face of this world-​con­trol­ling oc­to­pus with that of a human, who shows traits, par­ti­cu­lar­ly the hook­ed nose, which the Nazis at­tri­bu­ted par­ti­cu­lar­ly to Jews, thus trans­for­ming an other­wi­se per­fect­ly ac­cep­ta­ble ca­ri­ca­tu­re of the com­pa­ny Face­book into an an­ti-​Se­mi­tic, Stür­mer li­ke ca­ri­ca­tu­re against the Jew Mark Zu­cker­berg; the oc­to­pus, just like snakes, and spi­ders being fre­quent ways in which the Stür­mer por­tray­ed Jews."

The incident reminds us of the control over the cartoonists and journalists in Europe and America when it comes to the state of Israel as a religious state, or any Jew, even if they considered themselves as atheists, just like Zuckerberg. So, the cartoonists in Europe and America have to check the religion of any person they want to draw? And when they appeared to be Jews, they must think three times before embarking on this adventure, and then they should check the cartoon archives in the Nazi period perhaps there was a cartoon holding a similar idea to the idea which they wants to depict?

In addition, did Europe forget that the noses are drawn long in caricatures? If we asked anyone what the difference is between the image of an average person and his/her caricature, the first thing that comes to their mind is the long nose.

Many cartoonists have depicted Non-Jew celebrities with long noses, while this did not raise a turmoil about their caricatures, although their real noses look nicer than the nose of Zuckerberg himself. The following gallery includes some pictures and caricatures.