Cartoon Offends

To the Editors of The Crimson:

Imagine opening The Crimson opinion page to find a cartoon depicting 4000 rioting Palestinians throwing boulders down onto the heads of Jews worshipping during the Sukkot holiday at the Western Wall in Jerusalem. Now imagine the caption reading,"Dome of the ROCK indeed...". Such a cartoon would be an insult to Islam and to the Muslim holy site in Jerusalem. I would hope that it never be printed.

Oliver Chin's October 16th cartoon "Wailing Wall Indeed..." is deeply offensive. The depiction of an Israeli soldier carrying an M-16, standing unmoved beside a dying Palestinian in front of Judaism's holiest site serves to perpetuate the most base stereotypes of Jews as power-hungry villians, who take satisfaction in watching the suffering and blood of others.

It cheapens not only the Jewish holy site, but also the less of life that has occurred there. Responsibility for the recent complex tragedy in Jerusalem cannot be placed on any one side. Uninformed, inflammatory political cartoons do nothing but add insult to injury. Glen Schwaber '91