A Canadian newspaper caused a firestorm on Wednesday after it published an antisemitic caricature of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as the vampire in the movie Nosferatu.
The Quebec-based newspaper La Presse apologized and removed the offensive cartoon, but not before it was widely criticized for publishing it.
The image portrayed Netanyahu with pointed ears and long sharp fingers, evoking a sequence in the 1922 silent film in which the vampire Count Orlok hides away on a ship in pursuit of his human prey.
The accompanying test identified the caricature as “Nosfenyahou” on his way to the city of Rafah in the Gaza Strip.
Many commentators and politicians denounced the image as an expression of antisemitic tropes, with some noting the German film’s echoes in Nazi propaganda and ties to historical depictions of Jewish people as vampires.
The embassy of Israel in Canada said “shame on (La Presse) for posting this vile caricature” in a post on social media.
The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs wrote that criticism of Netanyahu is possible “without stooping to using antisemitic tropes such as hooked fingers or a big nose.”
It added that the drawing “contributes to the normalization of antisemitism that has been affecting our community for months.”
La Presse chief editorialist Stéphanie Grammond apologized in a statement posted online Wednesday afternoon, saying it was never the paper’s intention to promote harmful stereotypes.
“The drawing was meant to be a criticism of Mr. Netanyahu’s policies,” Grammond wrote, according to The Canadian Press. “It was aimed at the Israeli government, not the Jewish people.”
The representation of Netanyahu as the “Nosferatu” vampire was “unfortunate,” she said, given the embrace of the figure by the Nazi regime.
The cartoon also drew condemnation from politicians in Ottawa, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who called it unacceptable.
“It is distasteful and exactly the wrong thing to do, particularly in these times,” he told reporters.
Mental Health and Addictions Minister Ya’ara Saks said that to see “antisemitic tropes used in a national publication like this is just egregious.”
Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre called the caricature “disgusting” and “vile”.
The publication of the caricature comes amid a surge in antisemitism in Canada since the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, and the war in Gaza which followed.
In early November, an Indigo book store in downtown Toronto was vandalized with red paint and posters plastered on its front windows wrongfully accusing its Jewish founder and CEO, Heather Reisman, of “Funding Genocide.”
In January, a Jewish-owned grocery store in Toronto was spray-painted with the words “Free Palestine” and later set on fire.
Days later, Toronto police arrested four people on a highway overpass, located near a predominantly Jewish neighborhood, that has become the site of recurring pro-Palestinian Arab protests.
In Montreal, a firebomb was thrown against the door of a Jewish community center in late November, weeks after Congregation Beth Tikvah in Dollard-Des Ormeaux was hit by firebombs.
Several days later, two Jewish schools in the city were hit with gunshots. Another Jewish school was riddled with bullets in an incident three days later.