Antisemitisme i nutidige danske karikaturer

Abstract

Anti-Semitism in contemporary Danish caricatures

The article addresses the topicality of anti-Semitism in four caricature drawings from today’s Denmark. In the illustrations shown, the Middle East conflict is used as a central point to express anti-Semitic views. Using a dichotomous symbolic language, the caricatures convey a political message about the Middle East conflict, making it attractive to sympathize with the Palestinians and unattractive to side with Israel.

The anti-Israeli political agenda crosses a kind of social legitimacy boundary because the drawings appeal in a broader sense to historical anti-Semitic stereotypes. The article discusses how the stereotypes used in the caricatures can be traced back to different historical forms of anti-Semitism: religious anti-Semitism anchored in the Christian mediaeval church and ethnic anti-Semitism anchored in Nazi ideology.