Reports: Authorities Seek Arrest Of Baha Yassin

West Bank authorities have apparently issued an arrest warrant for the cartoonist and caricaturist Baha (or Bahaa) Yassin for giving offense to comics work he posted to his Facebook account. Two cartoons are in question. One was posted and taken down, the other replaced the first. Both use a combination of blunt imagery (rape) and symbolism (a yellow dress; figures in caricature). Yassin is not in a part of the West Bank controlled by the Palestinian Authority but the warrant provides authority for him to be picked up if he does move into one of those areas. It seems as if this is one of those stories were the point of the cartoon is deftly side-stepped in favor of judging the individual depictions devoid of their context in building a specific, political point.

Unlike a lot of a cartoonist-arrest stories where the cartoons themselves are hopelessly benign if not banal by western standards, Yassin's cartoons generally and the two cartoons in question are violent, direct and constitute aggressive commentary. You can see them here. I mention that not because in a civilized nation and world these would be any less protected, but that any news story involving speech issues has the possibility of developing differently if the imagery is strong.
 
posted 9:55 pm PST | Permalink
 

---

 
Daily Blog Archives
November 2019
October 2019
September 2019
August 2019
July 2019
 
Full Archives