The De-politicization of Israeli Political Cartoons

This article treats the topic of political cartooning and the evolution of a genre during the early years of Israeli statehood. It focuses particularly on the work of two prominent cartoon artists, Friedel Stern and Kariel Gardosh (Dosh), who made their careers in Israel in the 1950s and '60s and whose politically charged images have been sanitized over time. It looks at how attitudes towards certain imagery have changed so that political commentary that was seen as relevant and acute during early statehood eventually lost its political edge through historical handling and revision. These two cartoonists provided strong visual symbols of early Israeli national identity, which invariably had political motivations, and yet their legacy as political commentators during a crucial period in Israeli political history is often overlooked.