Tehran, Iran - An anti-Semitic cartoon depicting religious Jews praying in front of Jerusalem’s Western Wall took first prize in the inaugural Iranian “Wall Street Downfall” art festival. The winning artist, Mohammad Tabrizi, was awarded 5,000 euros for his entry.
The event, held earlier this week in Tehran, was meant to support the US’s grassroots “Occupy Wall Street”- a grassroots movement which aims to eliminate income inequalities and excesses in the US financial system.
Over 1600 cartoonists from 45 countries submitted entries to the competition, according to Iran’s official English-language Press TV. The contest’s seven judges hailed from Iran, Turkey, Poland and Romania.
“Once again, Iran takes the prize for promoting anti-Semitism,” said Abraham Foxman, director of of the Anti-Defamation League. “The winning cartoon takes the most sacred site in Judaism and perverts it into a shrine of greed. It is offensive on so many levels.”
In 2006, in response to the publishing of caricatures of the Muslim prophet Mohammed by a Danish newspaper, Iran sponsored a Holocaust cartoon contest.
