'The Passion,' pro-Israel letters trigger harassment
BARRY COHEN
Editor
Incidents of harassment have reverberated through the editorial pages of The Arizona Republic - in response to one of Steve Benson's cartoons and pro-Israel letters to the editor.
The Republic ran a Benson editorial cartoon on Feb. 26, the day after the release of Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ."
Benson depicted "The Passion of the Cash-in," with Mel Gibson as Jesus, wearing a crown of thorns with five rivulets of blood streaming down his face.
The rivulets were labeled "anti-Semitism," "gratuitous violence," "persecution complex," "historical inaccuracy" and "shrewd marketing," said Benson, who saw the film twice.
"I am convinced that Mel Gibson has done more than inadvertently blame the Jews as a people for deicide," he said.
Many Arizona Republic readers contacted Benson in response to the cartoon, with e-mails and phone calls.
"I have never been in this position of my career of 20-plus years," said Benson. "They assumed, based upon the cartoon, that I was Jewish."
One caller said those who criticize Gibson are Jewish because "they don't like Christ"; another reader accused Benson of writing the cartoon "to get a raise from his Jewish bosses," explained Benson.
"I may not be Jewish, but my heart beats with (Jewish people)" on the controversy surrounding "The Passion," he said.
The Arizona Republic readers' reactions to Benson's cartoon represents "ADL fears coming to be" - a non-Jew being targeted by anti-Semites, said Bill Straus, Anti-Defamation League regional director.
Other examples of harassment have involved people whose letters to the editor of the Arizona Republic have been published, said Straus. Some correspondents who have written in support of Israel and other who have "Jewish-sounding" last names have then received mail sent to their homes containing generic anti-Israel or anti-Jewish literature, he said.
"The practice is obviously meant to discourage them from writing similar letters in the future," Straus explained.
Last summer, Patsy Bakunin wrote a letter to The Arizona Republic in response to another letter writer who claimed Israeli soldiers used Palestinian children for target practice.
Her published letter included her name and city of residence, Bakunin said.
After her response was published, she started getting letters at home from the person who wrote the original letter to the editor, she said.
The messages included "terrible things the Jews (allegedly) have done ... (and) how the Jews colluded with Adolf Hitler to get their own country," said Bakunin.
"It had a bit of a chilling affect on me," she noted. "For a couple of days, I felt unsettled."
While she never believed her life was in danger, she "felt uncomfortable" that the writer knew where she lived, said Bakunin.
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