The Guardian has agreed to meet the country’s largest Jewish community group after a row over its publication of a cartoon condemned as anti-Semitic.
A spokesman for the Board of Deputies confirmed the newspaper had offered to meet but said no details had been agreed yet about when the meeting would happen and exactly who would take part.
It comes after cartoonist Martin Rowson was accused of using “anti-Semitic tropes” in a Guardian cartoon about the resignation of BBC chairman Richard Sharp. It showed Mr Sharp, who is Jewish, with a large nose carrying a box marked Goldman Sachs with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak inside and with a pig’s head and an octopus also included.
It was withdrawn after complaints and Mr Rowson issued a lengthy apology explaining the reference to Goldman Sachs was because Mr Sunak worked there with Mr Sharp and was intended as a criticism of “cronyism”.
Mr Rowson said he knew Mr Sharp was Jewish, because they went to school together, but added that his religion “never crossed my mind as I drew him”.
He said he had not considered portraying the Prime Minister as a puppet of Mr Sharp was anti-Semitic, adding: “I apologise, though I’m not going to repeat the current formulation by saying I’m sorry if people were upset, which is always code for ‘I’ve done nothing wrong, you’re just oversensitive’. This is on me, even if accidentally or, more precisely, thoughtlessly”.
Mr Sharp resigned from the BBC on Friday after being found to have broken rules on public appointments by failing to declare his involvement in an £800,000 loan guarantee for Boris Johnson when he was prime minister.
Another campaign group, the National Jewish Assembly, has called for Guardian editor Katharine Viner and Mr Rowson to be dismissed. The Guardian said it apologises “to Mr Sharp, to the Jewish community and to anyone offended”.
The row came days after Labour MP Diane Abbott had the party whip suspended following comments about racism. The Hackney North and Stoke Newington MP suggested Jewish people are not subject to racism “all their lives”.
Ms Abbott said in a letter in The Observer that although white people “with points of difference” experience prejudice, they do not suffer the same racism as black people.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has been accused of using the issue to rid the party of members like Ms Abbott, who was a prominent supporter of his predecessor Jeremy Corbyn. But he told BBC Radio 2 he had vowed to “tear anti-Semitism out by its roots from our party” when he took over as leader.
