Segal condemns Wilcox cartoon as Jewish leaders warn of antisemitic tropes

Australia’s special envoy to combat antisemitism, Jillian Segal, has added her voice to criticism of a recent cartoon by Cathy Wilcox.

She warned that imagery drawing on antisemitic tropes causes real harm, particularly in the aftermath of the Bondi terror attack.

Ms Segal made the comments on Friday during an interview with Sky News, responding to the cartoon published this week in ‘The Sydney Morning Herald’ and ‘The Age’. Segal said depictions implying hidden Jewish influence risk reinforcing long-standing stereotypes at a time when the community is still grieving.

“This kind of imagery has consequences,” Ms Segal said. “It feeds suspicion and distrust rather than contributing to informed debate.”

The cartoon portrayed calls for a royal commission into the Bondi massacre as being driven from behind the scenes by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, an image Jewish leaders say echoes classic antisemitic conspiracy narratives.

The Executive Council of Australian Jewry said the cartoon framed victims and supporters of a royal commission as agents of foreign influence rather than Australians seeking accountability after a mass-casualty terror attack.

ECAJ co-chief executive Alex Ryvchin said the implication was that Jews were targeted “because of Israel” and that anyone rejecting that idea was depicted as a stooge of Zionist interests.

“This is a familiar and dangerous trope,” Mr Ryvchin said, warning that such narratives distort reality and shift blame onto victims rather than perpetrators.

The NSW Jewish Board of Deputies also condemned the cartoon, questioning how it could have been published so soon after the deadliest antisemitic attack in Australia’s history.

Board president David Ossip said it was deeply troubling that a major media outlet would publish imagery that mirrored antisemitic ideas at a moment of acute trauma for the Jewish community.

“How can such vile antisemitic tropes be given a platform, particularly after what has just happened in this country?” he said.

Critics say the backlash is not about suppressing political satire but about recognising when imagery crosses into prejudice by invoking historic stereotypes of Jewish manipulation and power.

Letters published in the newspapers in response also included strong objections, saying the cartoon demeaned Australians genuinely seeking accountability and that it was a slap in the face of the families of those killed.

The timing of the cartoon has drawn particular criticism, coming just weeks after the December 14 Bondi attack, in which 15 people were killed during a Chanukah gathering, and amid a broader rise in antisemitic incidents targeting Jewish schools, synagogues and homes across Sydney and Melbourne.

Wilcox has previously been criticised over cartoons that Jewish groups said relied on antisemitic tropes, particularly in depictions involving Israel or Jewish figures.

Community leaders have argued that such imagery crosses from satire into prejudice by invoking ideas about Jewish power or collective blame, warning that repeated controversies heighten the responsibility on editors to consider impact as well as intent.

As of Friday afternoon, neither Wilcox nor Nine Entertainment, which owns both mastheads, had issued an apology or retraction.

Jewish leaders have called for a clear acknowledgement of harm and for major media organisations to exercise greater care in avoiding imagery that reinforces antisemitic stereotypes, warning that normalising such depictions risks deepening division at a fragile moment for social cohesion.