The UN's favorite cartoonist

Found via the LGF comments section: the UN Correspondents Association awarded a prize to Syrian cartoonist Raed Khalil - and he turned it down, because the award was named after an Israeli. You just can't make up this sort of thing, can you?

A Syrian cartoonist said on Monday he had rejected a United Nations Correspondents Association award named after Ranan Lurie, after he discovered the world renowned cartoonist was of Israeli origin.

"As a matter of principle I refuse to accept an award linked to a Zionist Israeli no matter under whose patronage it was," Raed Khalil told Reuters.
[...]
Khalil said the prize he received in December was awarded for a cartoon about "peace and love in the world."

"It is not about peace between Syria and Israel," he said of the cartoon showing two men on either bank of a river watering a plant that linked the two sides.

The last line in this Reuters story reads, "the U.N. prize is awarded annually for cartoons that best exemplify United Nations values and activities." It's funny 'cuz it's true.

Posted by damian at February 16, 2004 01:21 PM