B'nai B'rith Uncovers U.N. Ties To Anti-Semitic Arab Cartoonist

[B'nai B'rith Media Relations <mediarelations@bnaibrith.org>]

B'nai B'rith Uncovers U.N. Ties To Anti-Semitic Arab Cartoonist

Client List Also Includes German Industrial Giant Siemens and Other
Major Companies

>1/26/12

>Contact:  Sharon Bender

>202-857-6699 or sbender@bnaibrith.org

B'nai B'rith International's Office of United Nations Affairs has
revealed that an Arab cartoonist with an extensive and open record of
trading in virulently anti-Semitic imagery lists among his clients
multiple U.N. agencies and major corporations.

The artist, a Jordan-based Palestinian named Emad Hajjaj, routinely
publishes work in leading international Arab newspapers, including
Al-Quds Al-Arabi, printed in London. His cartoons regularly feature
anti-Israel and anti-Jewish incitement, equating Israel with Nazism,
crudely caricaturing Jews (distinguished by religious garb and symbols)
as bloodthirsty murderers and monsters, portraying menorahs as weapons
and showing the "crucifixion" of Palestinians on a cross marked by a
Star of David. The cartoons also often target the United States; a
typical example supplanted a burning "Iraq" and "Palestine" (using a map
negating Israel's very existence) for the smoldering Twin Towers in the
9/11 attacks. Click here to view a selection of Hajjaj's cartoons:
http://www.bnaibrith.org/HajjajCartoons012012.cfm

Among those that the firm where Hajjaj is identified as partner and
creative director, Abu Mahjoob Creative Productions, claims as clients
are the United Nations Development Fund for Women (now merged into U.N.
Women), the United Nations Development Programme, and the United Nations
Children's Fund, known as UNICEF; several Jordanian government bodies;
the British Council; and the companies Visa, Orange, Ferring
Pharmaceuticals and German industrial giant Siemens. IREX, a
Washington-based nonprofit whose stated objectives include
"conflict-resolution," also had dealings with the firm. 

B'nai B'rith has written to officials at these institutions noting that
Hajjaj's longtime engagement in incitement and the most dangerous
anti-Semitic libels and stereotypes makes it unlikely that the patrons
he boasts would not have been aware of these before engaging his firm,
thus "effectively legitimizing and rewarding its output." 

In response to the letter from B'nai B'rith, IREX's president said his
organization wasn't aware of the offensive cartoons and didn't plan to
work with Hajjaj or his creative firm again. U.N. Women, in response to
B'nai B'rith's letter, wrote that it is investigating the matter.

"Hajjaj's consistently disturbing record of anti-Semitic cartoons over
more than a decade should have precluded him from working with the
United Nations and multinational corporations," B'nai B'rith
International President Allan J. Jacobs said.

While noting B'nai B'rith's consistent support for the free expression
of legitimate, diverse perspectives, B'nai B'rith wrote in the letters
to the organizations engaging Hajjaj's firm: "incitement to violent,
abiding bigotry is fundamentally unacceptable and should not be
proactively afforded encouragement by responsible actors, particularly
corporate and public institutions. Not least in the Middle East, trading
in the crass, skewed and inflammatory imagery used by Mr. Hajjaj is a
foremost impediment to a future of peace and coexistence. The kind of
demonization he directs at Israel and Jews would rightly not be
tolerated against other groups."

B'nai B'rith International Executive Vice President Daniel S. Mariaschin
said: "Hajjaj's extensive record and his client list reflect how
pervasive this crude, dangerous venom is in the Arab world, and how
utterly ignored it is by the international community."

B'nai B'rith has urged the institutions contacted to urgently clarify
their relationship to Hajjaj, publicly disassociate from his firm's work
and offer consumers assurance of commitment to vigilance in choosing
future business partners.

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