Washington D.C — Liberty Values & Strategy Foundation hereby gives notice of its intention to lodge a formal complaint with the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) against the Daily Maverick, contingent upon the newspaper’s failure to issue a prompt and unequivocal retraction of the recently published cartoon which, in the Foundation’s considered view, constitutes antisemitic hate speech of a particularly egregious nature.

The Foundation is guided in its assessment by well-established international and comparative legal standards regarding hate speech, as articulated by the European Court of Human Rights and other relevant authorities. These standards recognise hate speech as encompassing not only direct incitement to violence, but also the denigration, negative stereotyping, and stigmatisation of individuals or groups on the basis of protected characteristics, including religion and ethnicity. The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance, for example, defines hate speech as the advocacy, promotion, or incitement of the denigration, hatred or vilification of a person or group, as well as the use of negative stereotyping and stigmatization.

The cartoon in question, as published by the Daily Maverick, deploys imagery and motifs that are incontrovertibly rooted in classical antisemitic propaganda. Such imagery has been extensively documented by leading scholars and human rights organisations as constituting hate speech, given its historical and contemporary function in dehumanising and vilifying Jewish individuals and communities.

Specifically, the cartoon employs the following antisemitic tropes, each of which is recognised in the academic literature and in the jurisprudence of human rights bodies as constituting hate speech:

• Parasitic or Animalistic Depiction: The use of animal or parasitic imagery to represent Jews, as seen in the notorious “bloodsucking octopus” motif, has been repeatedly condemned as inherently antisemitic, as it degrades and dehumanises its subjects.

• Conspiracy and Control: The cartoon insinuates Jewish control over political or financial institutions, echoing the well-documented canard of Jewish world domination or manipulation, a trope that has fuelled discrimination and violence for centuries.

• Blood Libel and Warmongering: The invocation of blood imagery, or the suggestion that Jews are responsible for war and suffering, is a direct reference to the “blood libel” - a false and dangerous accusation that has historically incited violence against Jewish communities.

The use of such motifs is not merely offensive; it meets the threshold of hate speech as it constitutes negative stereotyping and vilification of Jews as a group, with the clear potential to incite prejudice and social exclusion. The European Court of Human Rights has consistently held that statements or imagery that attack the dignity of people, brutalise or dehumanise a group, or promote intolerance, fall outside the protection of freedom of expression and may properly be sanctioned in a democratic society.

It is not the Foundation’s intention to stifle legitimate public debate or criticism of any state or policy. However, the deployment of antisemitic imagery and tropes, as in the present case, cannot be justified as mere commentary or satire. Rather, it crosses the line into hate speech, as defined by both international human rights law and the South African constitutional order.

Accordingly, while the Foundation remains willing to resolve this matter without recourse to formal proceedings, it must insist that the Daily Maverick immediately retract the cartoon and issue a public apology. Should the newspaper fail to do so, the Foundation will have no alternative but to proceed with a formal complaint to the SAHRC, as part of its commitment to upholding the dignity and rights of all South Africans, and to combating all forms of hate speech and discrimination

Not in South Africa. Not anywhere.