LA Times Op-Ed–In Israel, a cartoonist was fired for a political offense. I quit my job in protest

by

Haim Watzman

illustration by Avi Katz, for “The Plowman Meets the Reaper”
I have never met Avi Katz, the illustrator and editorial cartoonist fired by the Jerusalem Report in late July for a politically controversial drawing. In fact, I’ve never even spoken to Katz on the phone. Yet we have the intimate relationship that grows out of artistic partnership. For more than 10 years, once every four weeks, I have published a piece of short fiction in the Report, and Katz has drawn the accompanying illustrations.

When Katz was fired, I quit. I notified the Report that I no longer wish to be associated with the magazine.

Read the rest in the LA Times

4 thoughts on “LA Times Op-Ed–In Israel, a cartoonist was fired for a political offense. I quit my job in protest”

  3. Today I read your article in the Op-Ed section of the Los Angeles Times. I am writing to commend your choice to leave your place of employment rather than stand by and simply observe the forced exit of editorial cartoonist, Avi Katz. Your courage, integrity and willingness to act on your values is rare behavior. And our world is in desperate need of people like you who model actions that inspire rather than actions that provoke rage and despair. Thank you for telling us your story.

  4. You showed courage and principle in resigning in support of Avi Katz. The Jerusalem Post, once a respectable independent Jewish voice, caved by firing Katz, who was just telling it like he saw it (and expressing a view with which many Jews and others agree). The Post’s action gives bigots and anti-democratic forces a boost by expunging a dissident voice in its pages to please subscribers. No courage there and the only principle on display is craven self-interest.

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