ZAPIRO = ZERO

Ink dripping with blood, South African Jewish cartoonist endangers his people.

By Stephen Schulman

Like so many others, I am familiar with the work of the South African cartoonist Jonathan Shapiro better known as Zapiro. Shapiro, the source of many biting caricatures has been gifted with exceptional artistic talent but most sadly, very little else.

Shapiro positions himself as the great and fearless crusader wielding his mighty pen “fighting monsters” whilst carrying the banner of an unbiased moral authority that clearly differentiates wrong from right in exposing the injustices in our world. Unfortunately, his hatred of the State of Israel runs so deep that all of his cartoons of our country overflow with such venomous bilge that all pretence of his vaunted morality is jettisoned.

In Iran, a theocratic, despotic and repressive government boasts an atrocious human rights record of incarcerating, torturing, murdering and publicly executing its critics; in the first four months of 2025 alone, there have been at least 343 recorded exe­cu­tions. It has also long trumpeted its declared aim – with all means at its disposal – of obliterating the Jewish state. The IAEA has revealed that this regime while employing its well-honed strategy of prevarication, threats, obfuscation, subterfuge and outright lying has blatantly contravened all imposed limits and manufactured large amounts of highly enriched fissionable uranium suitable for the construction of an atomic bomb. How did our Shapiro react to this scenario of a Holocaust denying genocidal rogue state acquiring the means of mass destruction? His cartoon of the 12^th June speaks for itself:

If you are looking for any condemnation or even hint of Iran’s actions, you will be sorely disappointed for once again Shapiro’s old flogging horse Netanyahu reappears, now depicted as a sinister war monger with a mushroom cloud spouting from his head. To our Jonathan it matters not one whit that Iran’s actions have been condemned by the European community and many Western countries. For, as usual, as portrayed in his regular vilifying and demonizing cartoons, Netanyahu i.e. Israel i.e. the Jews are the root of all conflicts and injustices in the Middle East.

Why his silence on Iran’s crimes and transgression? The answer lies with SA’s ruling African National Congress party’s accumulation of huge debts that were suddenly paid off by a mysterious but well known benefactor: Iran. Shapiro is not only a highly moral but also a most pragmatic individual and knows full well that any attempt to criticize his government’s close ally and party bankroller would have officialdom fall on him like a ton of bricks. How true for him is the old adage: “A dog barks for his masters.” After all, a man has to put food on the table for all those hungry mouths and nobody likes to be unceremoniously hoofed out of lucrative newspaper jobs and see his dedicated buying public boycotting his books. So accordingly, principles must be swept under the carpet and a politically correct silence must be maintained.

On the 13^th June, only one day after the publication of this scurrilous cartoon, Israel launched a pre-emptive strike on Iran’s military-nuclear complex – a war for its survival that has been condoned by the enlightened international community. While Israel has confined its targets to Iran’s military and nuclear installations, Iran, unsurprisingly, has had no compunction about sending its UAV’s and missiles into a hospital and heavily concentrated urban areas.

The war is still ongoing and Shapiro’s pen will be busy drawing for his select audience. If anyone wonders about the content of his forthcoming cartoons, a glance at a few of his notorious past endeavors should leave no doubt. The cartoon of the 8^th October 2024 is so disgusting in its distortion of truth and warped narrative that it is simply beneath contempt. Other repulsive cartoons portray Israel’s P.M sitting in a bath of Arab blood and as the charioteer behind the four horsemen of the apocalypse.

But what about Shapiro’s pursuing of some genuine “monsters” in this world such as the repressive North Korean regime and China’s persecution of the Falun Gong sect and the cultural genocide of the Tibetans and the Uyghur? Neither a squeak nor a plaintive bleat emanates from our crusading knight, for after all, China is a valued trading partner and investor in SA’s crumbling economy and it wouldn’t do to ruffle their feathers.

On October 7^th 2023, a Hamas terrorist army invaded Israel in an orgy of rape, sodomy, plundering and destruction, sadistically murdering twelve hundred people – the biggest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. Two hundred and fifty innocent people – from little children to infirm octogenarians were forcibly abducted into Gaza and held in unspeakable conditions, suffering sexual abuse, torturing and beatings while being systematically starved and dehydrated. Many of them were murdered in captivity including a young mother together with her toddler and his small brother. Fifty hostages still remain and of those twenty are reputed to be still alive. Would this not arouse outrage in the heart of any decent, thinking person? Jonathan Shapiro, true to form in his callousness and selective morality, turns a blind eye to the suffering of his fellow Jews in Israel and never a hint of the tragedy or condemnation of its perpetrators has ever appeared in his work.

Nevertheless, to Shapiro living in Cape Town, Jewish lives do matter. They do indeed matter very much to him when they are in close proximity and when they can serve him or be exploited for his personal needs. He besmirches Israel at every opportunity, yet had no problem in sending his children for a good education to Herzlia, the Jewish day school. He also sent them to a Zionist Jewish youth movement’s summer camps knowing that they would be well looked after and he would have peace of mind. He also had no qualms about applying for a place for his aged mother in the Jewish home for the aged in Cape Town.

Jonathan Shapiro is nothing more than a self serving hypocrite, a pitiable individual hiding behind the façade of a crusader with a high moral stance but who applies his principles only when they serve his needs. The stench of a putrid morality has long clung to this despicable personage.

About the writer:

Stephen Schulman is a graduate of the South African Jewish socialist youth movement Habonim, who immigrated to Israel in 1969 and retired in 2012 after over 40 years of English teaching. He was for many years a senior examiner for the English matriculation and co-authored two English textbooks for the upper grades in high school. Now happily retired, he spends his time between his family, his hobbies and reading to try to catch up on his ignorance.

While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves.  LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).