Iran's judicial authorities reportedly banned a newspaper Monday for publishing a front-page graphic that appeared to show Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's hand drawing the poverty line in the Islamic Republic amid widespread anger over the nation's cratering economy.

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The semiofficial Mehr news agency said Iran's media supervisory body shut down the daily newspaper Kelid after it published a front-page article titled "Millions of Iranians Living under Poverty Line" on Saturday.

Under the headline, the graphic shows a person's left hand holding a pen and drawing a red line across the page as silhouettes of people underneath are reaching up to the line.

The graphic resembled an earlier image of Khamenei writing on a piece of paper with his left hand, a prominent ring on one of his fingers. His right has been paralyzed since a 1981 bombing.

The Young Journalists Club, a group associated with state television, earlier reported that censors were examining the newspaper after the publication. The state-run IRNA news agency acknowledged Kelid had been shut down, without explaining the reason for the decision.

Kelid could not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday. Their website has been taken offline.

Iran, whose state-dominated economy has long faced trouble since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, has been under increased pressure since former US President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew America from Tehran's nuclear deal with world powers in 2018.

The Iranian rial is now about 281,500 to the dollar – compared with 32,000 rials for $1 at the time when the 2015 nuclear deal was struck. With US sanctions still strangling the economy, record-breaking inflation has hit ordinary Iranians where it hurts most. Stunned shoppers are cutting meat and dairy from their diets, buying less and less each month.

While radio and television stations are all state-controlled in Iran, newspapers and magazines can be owned and published by private individuals. However, Iranian journalists face constant harassment and the threat of arrest in the country, according to press advocacy groups.

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In a tweet posted on Sunday morning, Wilders said international attention on the contest had enabled him to make a point about the importance of freedom of speech.

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"Mission accomplished. End of contest," he wrote above a picture of what he said was the winning drawing, depicting an angry-looking man with a beard.

Images of the Prophet Muhammad are traditionally forbidden in Islam and considered idolatrous. Many observant Muslims regard caricatures of Muhammad as highly offensive.

Wilders canceled a similar contest in August last year after police arrested a man who had threatened to kill him over his plan.

At the time, plans to hold the contest also prompted large demonstrations in Pakistan and Wilders said he felt the danger of violence against innocent people was too great.

Wilders' anti-Islam Freedom party is the second largest in Dutch parliament, but is not part of the government.

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In 2017, Garrison drew a cartoon of then-US National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster and retired US Gen. David Petraeus on strings controlled by Jewish billionaire George Soros, who is dangled on strings controlled by a hand from a single arm labeled "Rothschilds," referring to the iconic Jewish philanthropic family from the United Kingdom that has been a common target of anti-Semitic conspiracies.

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"It is completely unacceptable that the Trump Administration would invite someone to the White House who has been known to write anti-Semitic cartoons," US House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) told JNS.

Other members of Congressional leadership did not respond to a request for comment.

Nevertheless, Jewish and pro-Israel organizations criticized the White House invitation of Garrison.

"Hopefully, the president is not aware of the anti-Semitic quality of the [McMaster-Petraeus-Soros-Rothschild] cartoon so that he, when he gets aware, he should revoke the invitation immediately," Sarah Stern, founder and president of the Endowment for Middle East truth, told JNS on Sunday evening.

"#Anti-Semitism becomes normalized when obvious examples, like grossly #antiSemitic cartoons, are overlooked. Just as cartoons of this sort shouldn't be published anywhere, cartoonists who produce such hate shouldn't be invited to the White House. We call on WH to rescind invite," tweeted Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt.

#AntiSemitism becomes normalized when obvious examples, like grossly #antiSemitic cartoons, are overlooked. Just as cartoons of this sort shouldn't be published anywhere, cartoonists who produce such hate shouldn't be invited to the White House. We call on WH to rescind invite. https://t.co/ts8vnle3Tm

— Jonathan Greenblatt (@JGreenblattADL) 7 ביולי 2019

"We strongly condemn President Trump's invitation to anti-Semitic cartoonist Ben Garrison to the White House Social Media Summit later this week. Despite Garrison's record using social media to promulgate hate and disinformation, the White House has opened its doors to him, while reportedly excluding Twitter and Facebook representatives," Jewish Democratic Council of America executive director Halie Soifer told JNS. "This invitation demonstrates that the Trump administration condones Garrison's anti-Semitic imagery, as well as his use of social media to spread hate."

The Republican Jewish Coalition said: "We are very concerned by his past cartoons. We have an active conversation with the White House on this and are working with them on it."

Facebook and Twitter have reportedly not been invited to the summit.

The White House declined to comment on the record.

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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The Times' Editorial Board wrote that the paper's publishing of the cartoon – which portrayed a blind U.S. President Donald Trump wearing a kippah being led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as his guide dog donning a Star of David collar around his neck – was "evidence of a profound danger — not only of anti-Semitism but of numbness to its creep."

The Times said the cartoon, by Portuguese political cartoonist António Moreira Antunes, was selected for publication "from a syndication service by a production editor who did not recognize its anti-Semitism."

It wrote that the "ancient, enduring prejudice [of anti-Semitism] is once again working itself into public view and common conversation" and that "history teaches that the rise of extremism requires the acquiescence of broader society."

The Times also acknowledged its own ignominious history with anti-Semitism, admitting that during the 1930s and 1940s, "The Times was largely silent as anti-Semitism rose up and bathed the world in blood."

"That failure still haunts this newspaper," the editorial said.

The Times then took aim at Trump for failing to condemn anti-Semitism on the right wing of the political spectrum.

"As anti-Semitism has surged from the internet into the streets, President Trump has done too little to rouse the national conscience against it," the paper's editorial board wrote, accusing him of practicing "a politics of intolerance for diversity."

"Though he condemned the cartoon in The Times, he has failed to speak out against anti-Semitic groups like the white nationalists who marched in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017 chanting, 'Jews will not replace us.' He has practiced a politics of intolerance for diversity, and attacks on some minority groups threaten the safety of every minority group."

Trump, who has long branded The New York Times as biased against him, commented on the cartoon in a tweet that primarily condemned its coverage of his presidency.

This article was originally published by i24NEWS. Read more at https://www.i24news.tv/en.

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Thursday's cartoon featured U.S. President Donald Trump wearing a kippah, sporting dark-tinted glasses and being led by a dog with the face of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with a large blue Star of David hanging from its collar.

The weekend image by Norwegian cartoonist Roar Hagen depicts Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with sinister eyes taking a picture of himself with a selfie-stick, carrying in what appears to be an empty desert with a tablet featuring the Israeli flag painted on it.

"Untimely bad move by The New York Times showing an ominous-looking cartoon featuring the Star of David and Israel's prime minister again, right after apologizing for the first cartoon and promising to prevent similar cases of anti-Semitism in the future," StandWithUs CEO Roz Rothstein told JNS. "All of us must hold them accountable to their promises. Enough is enough."

"The anti-Semitic editorial cartoon in Thursday's international edition of The New York Times was an outrage. Drawn with great technical skill and conceived with great ignorance, if not hate, this piece was simply a reflection of the Times' long-standing bias against Israel. The symbolism used was vintage Nazi Germany," said B'nai B'rith International president Charles Kaufman and CEO Daniel Mariaschin in a statement.

"This cartoon punctuated yet another shocking weekend of hatred toward Jews. How anti-Semitic commentary has made it into the mainstream of public opinion is beyond comprehension in modern times," they continued.

"In this case, this incident is the exclamation point about media today. Editors have virtually disappeared as the marketplace of ideas flourishes with unchecked sources and little, if any, corroboration of information. What seems to matter most is being first to market with a thought rather than exercising discretion, a penchant for accuracy and news judgment."

The Times apologized on Sunday and said that "investigated how this happened and learned that, because of a faulty process, a single editor working without adequate oversight downloaded the syndicated cartoon and made the decision to include it on the Opinion page. The matter remains under review, and we are evaluating our internal processes and training. We anticipate significant changes."

Kaufman and Mariaschin said that "while we acknowledge that the Times has issued apologies for the cartoon, merely apologizing is not enough."

"We call on the paper to review and revise its editorial processes so that blatantly anti-Semitic and racist content will not be given a platform by one of the most widely read newspapers in the world," they continued. "The artist who created the cartoon and the editors who approved its publication must be held accountable."

"Whatever your interpretation of this particular image, we can only conclude that The New York Times is deliberately giving the Jewish community the proverbial finger even while it apologizes for its other cartoon," tweeted HonestReporting, a non-governmental organization that monitors anti-Israel media bias, regarding the weekend cartoon.

Sarah Stern, founder and president of the Endowment for Middle East Truth, told JNS that "sometimes, a perfunctory 'apology' does not really cut it."

"Obviously, the 'apology' for last Thursday's deeply offensive cartoon, did not penetrate with the editors of The New York Times enough to prevent them from printing yet another, equally vile anti-Semitic cartoon in [the weekend] edition," she said.

"One must ask why they are so obsessed with Israel and with Prime Minister Netanyahu? The problem is that anti-Israel, anti-Zionist and anti-Netanyahu statements have become so acceptable in today's society that the 'respectable' editors of The New York Times do not recognize that they, themselves are guilty of committing, over and over again, classic anti-Semitic stereotypes and offenses."

This article is reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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Erdan wrote that anti-Semitism in political cartoons extended beyond the pages of newspapers and turned into the "blood of Jews" being spilled in synagogues or other places "identified as Jewish."

"That is always the true motive for terrorism and murder against our people – not 'the territories' or 'concessions,' – hatred of Jews," Erdan wrote.

"The loathsome terrorist who carried out the murderous act in the California synagogue and killed the late Lori Gilbert Kaye was inspired to kill by the same anti-Semitic motives in the cartoon published in The New York Times – [accusations] that the Jews run the world, that the prime minister of Israel runs the world. The Israeli prime minister is portrayed as a guide dog leading a blind man. How much hatred and incitement that illustration contains," he wrote.

"So people are saying that the newspaper supposedly apologized and that the cartoon's publication was an 'error in judgment.' … You wouldn't accept such a limp-wristed condemnation of racism and incitement if it were directed at any other minority," Erdan continued.

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