Montreal newspaper's political cartoon showing Netanyahu as a vampire decried as antisemitic

The following story contains an image that has been criticized for being antisemitic.

A political cartoon in a French-language newspaper depicting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a vampire has sparked accusations of antisemitism.

The cartoon appeared in Wednesday's edition of La Presse, a prestigious digital-only newspaper. It shows Netanyahu with long claws, pointed ears and wearing an overcoat — imagery reminiscent of Count Orlok, a vampire from the 1922 silent film, Nosferatu. 

In the cartoon, Netanyahu stands on a ship above an inscription that reads "Nosfenyahou, en route to Rafah."

Politicians, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and Jewish leaders criticized the cartoon, calling it antisemitic and reminiscent of Nazi propaganda against Jews.

Serge Chapleau, the cartoonist who drew it, dismissed the criticism in an interview with CBC and said he did not believe it was antisemitic. Nonetheless, by late morning, the cartoon no longer appeared on the La Presse website and the newspaper issued an apology.

Jeremy Levi, the mayor of Hampstead, a town on the island of Montreal with a large Jewish population, called the cartoon "extremely hurtful." 

Nazi propaganda in the 1930s portrayed Jewish people as vampires and the original depiction of Count Orlok in the Nosferatu film has been compared to stereotypical caricatures of Jewish people. 

"Everybody who's Jewish understands the significance of what that meant," Levi said of the cartoon. "The problem is, you go back 100 years ago, this was starting to be done in Eastern Europe and Germany and Poland. Today, there's just a level of ignorance where people don't know."

Chapleau, who has drawn political cartoons for La Presse since 1996, said people are overthinking the meaning of the cartoon.

"It's a caricature based on an old character Nosferatu, an old vampire who goes and invades another country," Chapleau said in French. "That's all, it's not worse than that. If you look up cartoons of Netanyahu, you'll see much worse.

"It's not antisemitic, it's not that at all."

Chapleau said he was not aware that the cartoon had been taken down. 

Early Wednesday afternoon, La Presse issued an apology on its website.