Portfolio English JALIS and the Israel-Palestine border

« JALIS and the Israel-Palestine border English LV Sophie JALIS Date: 1-media critique of Carlos Latuff’s Cartoon on the Israel–Palestine Border This political cartoon made in 2004 by Carlos Latuff' focus on criticizing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, more precisely on the building of the West Bank barrier.

Latuff who is known worldwide for supporting Palestinian rights, often show the Israeli government in a negative way while using simple yet strong visuals to paint the barrier as a symbol of the systematic oppression of a population.

The cartoon uses many symbols to get its message across about the current political climate without needing any words so in that way a lot of people can get emotionally captivated by the drawing. In the first plan of the picture, we can see that Latuff represented someone in a blue and white striped uniform.

This outfit immediately remind us of someone which freedom is being taken, locked up and not being free but if we take a closer look, it instantly creates a strong and symbolic image.

His stripped uniform is linked to prisoners and more specifically the uniforms worn during the holocaust by prisoners especially in nazi concentration camps.

On one hand, the color blue could suggest coldness and suffering while the white color suggest emptiness and loss but on the other hand those colors remind us of the Israeli flag.

By this representation, Carlos Latuff suggest that Palestinians are being treated as if they were collectively imprisoned, oppressed by a terrible system while they are losing their freedom and are being dehumanitated. Moreover, this idea of the World War II is showed by noticing on the uniform that there's a patch with a red crescent with the letter P and the number 7256 engrave on it.

The color red of the crescent is usually associated with danger,violence,blood…highlighting the seriousness of the situation and identity of Palestinians by their national flag that contains red. The red crescent is usually linked to the Muslim world or organizations providing assistance, which puts the person in a context related to the Middle East with Muslim majority societies that could be represented also with a headwear.

In many of the author cartoons, this peace of headwear called a “keffiyeh “held by a black “agal”is meant to represent here Palestinians.

A keffiyeh is a traditional middle eastern headscarf that symbolize cultural identity and resistance.

Also, the letter P in the red crescent gives back the letters “PC” that could have many meanings for example Prisoner of Conscience or Palestinian Cause, making the person a symbol of the Palestinian people. Additionally, the number reinforces the idea of being in prison and turns again the person into one prisoner out of many suggesting that this situation is affecting lots of people, not just a few.

Furthermore, we notice that the person posture: he is covering his face with his hand while looking sad, ashamed and really tired.

The author instantly makes this person seem more human and vulnerable making us feel empathy and pity for him. However, behind him, in the second plan, there's a long wall with a guard tower on top.

In other words, it’s based on the Israeli West Bank barrier that was put up during the second “Intifada”.

He uses this artistic interpretation to present a powerful statement about how oppressive this type of barrier can be for those affected by it.

Indeed, it doesn't look like a wall meant to keep people safe but it looks more like it's part of a giant prison.

By using this comparison, Latuff is saying to us that the barrier isn't profoundly really about protection but more about controlling, separating and punishing the entire population. The guard tower makes this clearer since it evokes the idea of being watched all the time by an authoritarian government.

Over all with these simple things, the cartoon turns the whole Palestinian area into a kind of prison where regular people are in fact the inmates. In addition, Carlos’s message takes life across the strong emotions and symbols in the picture.

By showing religious symbols, the representation of a Palestinian civilian as a prisoner with his.... »