Iranian Holocaust Cartoon Contest a Flop from Planck's Constant

Iran's competition for cartoons mocking the Holocaust drew a pitiful 204 entries from around the world and although Iranian newspapers announced the results of the competition they barely gave it any decent coverage. Not a single one even bothered to publish the winning cartoon pictured here. [Click on image for more Holocaust Cartoons]

The exhibit was a response to the Danish cartoons of Islam's Prophet Mohammed (piss be upon him) that enraged many Muslims.

Iran awarded the first prize worth $12,000 late Wednesday to Moroccan cartoonist Abdollah Derkaoui, who drew a picture of an Israeli crane erecting a wall of concrete blocks around Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, Islam's third holiest site. The blocks bear sections of a well-known photograph of the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz where as many as 1.5 million people mostly Jews died during World War II.

The cartoons, which have been on display at the Museum of Contemporary Arts for Palestine since August, have not drawn large crowds even though state schools bused their students to the show.

Carlos Latuff of Brazil and A. Chard of France jointly won the second prize of $8,000, and Iran's Shahram Rezai received $5,000 for third place. The prize money was originally $12,000 for the top three spots but was upped to $25,000 back in May.

The Tehran daily Hamshahri, a co-sponsor of the exhibition, said it wanted to test the West's tolerance for drawings about the Holocaust. The entries on display came from 60 nations including the United States, Indonesia and Turkey. The reaction: "A Big Yawn."

Interestingly, a Jewish Blogger started the Israeli Anti-Semitic Cartoon Contest so that Jews could poke fun of themselves and to show how easy it is to stereotype Jews. Here's a sample:

Photo Credit: tikun olam

Click on the photo credit link for an excellent discussion about whether Jews should even be engaging in such self-ridicule.

Others blogging on the cartoons:

Woman Honor Thyself, Judeophobia?
Now just imagine for a moment a country launching a gay bashing cartoon contest..or a "bash African American” contest eh? Do you suppose it would remain under the radar like this freak show has?

Stiknstein, Jewish Rage Explodes all over the World at cartoon contest winners!!!!
The response from the Jewish community was swift….as you can see from these comments in the Jerusalem Post:
Ben - Israel 11/02/2006 18:14 I think this contest is an easy way to earn some big bucks. I am a jew myself, and I think that if someone like me could win a contest like this, then it would prove that the muslims can be tolerant against the jews. Besides, a simple drawing wouldn’t hurt anyone, would it?