Age and SMH apologise for ‘antisemitic’ Cathy Wilcox cartoon
The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald have today issued apologies after publishing a controversial cartoon by Cathy Wilcox that addressed the political fallout from the Bondi Beach massacre and prompted widespread claims of antisemitism.
The two mastheads, owned by Nine Entertainment, ran matching editorials on January 11 expressing regret over the offence caused by the January 7 illustration, which critics said relied on harmful stereotypes.
The drawing showed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu beating a drum labelled “Royal Commission into Antisemitism”, followed by Australian political figures including Opposition Leader Peter Dutton and former prime minister Scott Morrison. A small dog said, “Don’t mention the war.” It was presented as commentary on the politicisation of the December 14 attack at Bondi Beach that killed 15 people and injured dozens.
Cathy Wilcox cartoon (Facebook)
In their apologies, the newspapers said Wilcox intended to criticise opportunistic reactions to the tragedy but acknowledged the deep hurt felt by many readers, particularly Jewish Australians. “We have heard their distress, and for this pain, we sincerely apologise,” the editorials said. The papers added that “Wilcox’s intention was to scrutinise the almost immediate politicisation following the horrific attack at Bondi” and that she “by no means intended to cause hurt to the Jewish community”.
The Bondi attack, one of Australia’s deadliest domestic terror incidents, led to immediate calls from victims’ families, survivors, athletes and politicians for a federal inquiry into rising antisemitism and security failures. The cartoon, however, was condemned for echoing classic antisemitic imagery associated with Nazi-era propaganda, including portrayals of Jews as shadowy manipulators.
Jewish organisations reacted with anger. The Zionist Federation of Australia said, “The cartoon could have been published in Der Stürmer, a pro-Nazi German newspaper that called for the extermination of Jews as early as 1933. Senior people at Nine have some very serious questions to answer.”
Australia’s Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism, Jillian Segal, said the cartoon repeated damaging imagery at a time when the Jewish community felt exposed, following a sharp rise in incidents since the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel. The Executive Council of Australian Jewry said the image risked fuelling hostility and division.
The newspapers also defended the role of political cartooning while acknowledging its limits. “For decades, the Herald’s cartoonists have held up a mirror to reflect hypocrisy in public life,” the editorial said, adding that they “lampoon the powerful – in politics, business and, sometimes, their own publishers”. At the same time, it stressed that “this masthead stands in support of free speech, but it acknowledges the harm it is capable of causing”, adding, “There is no place in this country for hate speech.”
Public figures also weighed in. Sports journalist Ronny Lerner called the work “disgusting” given the loss of Jewish lives on Australian soil. Former senator Nova Peris, who appeared in the illustration, labelled it antisemitic, as did surfer Mick Fanning and other athletes. Victims and survivors expressed dismay, with one telling The Australian the cartoon used their grief for political purposes. Former defence minister Mike Kelly said it was “heinous” and ignored Australian suffering.
Michael Gawenda
Former Age editor-in-chief Michael Gawenda delivered one of the strongest critiques, describing the Wilcox illustration as “full of terrible ugliness” and “uglier and more hateful than anything Michael Leunig ever drew”.
Writing in The Australian, Gawenda said he felt “shock and subsequent anger” on seeing the cartoon, arguing it portrayed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a “master manipulator” orchestrating calls for a royal commission and reduced Australians seeking accountability to “silly-looking people”.
He questioned how any editor could have approved a cartoon published less than a month after the Bondi Beach terrorist massacre, saying, “It has come to this at The Age, the paper where I worked for many decades and which I edited for seven years. The paper I once loved.”
The episode adds to a series of disputes surrounding Wilcox’s work since October 7, 2023. A December 2024 assessment by the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC) said some of her Israel-focused cartoons had skirted stereotypes, drawing repeated complaints from Jewish readers.
The apologies come as renewed calls are made for scrutiny under racial discrimination laws, underscoring the ongoing tension between satire and harm as Australia grapples with a sustained rise in antisemitism.
Firstly there needs to be answers provided as to how this father and son
were overlooked given that the son was on a watch list and had publicly preached hate towards those of Jewish belief.
Secondly Gun Licence Laws have nought to do with it. People of this ilk will find a way to carry out their heinous murderous acts. An example is Melbourne James Gargasoulas used a car as a weapon killing six and injuring dozens.
No kneejerk reaction was made by politicians to change driving licence law
Nor were any insensitive cartoons published on that matter
Third government had been warned that acts such as this one were going to happen. Look to history. In 2014 an unstable Islamist Mon Haron Monis whom had publicly demonstrated his beliefs walked into the Lindt cafe armed with an unlicensed shotgun caused the deaths of two innocents and injury to a number of others 2015 Curtis Cheng accountant shot with an unlicensed pistol at Parramatta by a groomed15 year old Islamist boy.
How did these murderers manage to be overlooked when they were so openly blatant with their beliefs
Yes an enquiry of the highest order that being a Royal Commission must be made into the Bondi massacre.
Yes the Cathy Wilcox cartoon was unfeeling and insensitive, lacking humour
and without need to be published as a reflection on society and the incompetency of goverment.
Critiques of the cartoon as ‘sickening’ and ‘pro-Nazi’ are in my opinion overblown. I understand why families of the victims of the tragic shooting may want a federal inquiry called and why prominent Australians may feel such an enquiry is called for. Saying that accountability is necessary is understandable. For them to feel offended by this cartoon is understandable, they genuinely want a Royal Commission. But let’s be real, cartoonists offend people all the time.
With that said, the cartoon was intending to criticise the fever pitch calls for a Royal Commission from the Liberal Party and from the Murdoch press and Sky News. Netanyahu is the only Jewish person depicted in the cartoon – he is a political leader of the State of Israel, not the representative of Jewish people of the Jewish faith.
Remember, Netanyahu is a foreign political leader and he immediately weighed in to add his 2 cents while the bodies were still warm, and his immediate stance was to attack Albo and the Australian government. Netanyahu, the Murdoch press and the Liberal Party wasted no time converting a national tragedy into an attack on the Albanese government and anyone who dared questioned the State of Israel’s actions. The call for a Royal Commission into the shooting is the uniting cry of this cynical attack.
As an aside, NSW Police and the AFP have revealed that they knew who the shooters were, that they knew the son had been involved in an extremist Islamic cell that was talking to Islamic State, and they knew the son lived with the father who owned six firearms. The father and son duo had been periodically under surveillance but no one thought to remove their firearms.
There are questions that Australian society needs to confront, but they are not whether an Australian cartoon that dares to call this cynicism out is anti-Semitic.
ASIO, the AFP and NSW Police – they should have to face the music that this tragic attack happened on their watch.
It seems Cathy Wilcox has not learnt that NOW, after December 14, she may no longer go her merry way, using anti-Israel and antisemitic tropes in her cartoons. A reprehensible cartoon created by a person bereft of moral judgement or discernment.
It seems Cathy Wilcox has not learnt that NOW, after December 14, she may no longer go her merry way, using anti-Israel and antisemitic tropes in her cartoons. A reprehensible cartoon created by a person bereft of moral judgement or discernment.