Since the biblical third commandment forbids the creation of likenesses, Jews have always been in favor for such arts as music and literature than in drawing and sculpturing.  Jews were often enough the subjects of vicious anti-Semitic cartoons, especially in the period of the Dreyfus Affair, a movement which led up to the Nazi propaganda machine’s hate-paper Die Sturmer.

The story of Israeli cartooning as we know it begins with two young Hungarian Jews who were liberated from Nazi camps at the end of World War Two: Ze’ev (Yaacov Farkash) and Dosh (Kariel Gardosh) who drew daily political cartoons for the competing newspapers Haaretz and Yediot. Dosh’s character in shorts, sandals and a farmer’s hat became a symbol for Israel and Israelis.  Ranan Luria, from an old Jerusalem family, cartooned for Maariv but after the Six Days’ War left Israel for good, becoming one of the world’s best-known political cartoonists. An anomaly in this traditionally male profession was German-born Friedel Stern, whose themes were more social than political.

In the 1970’s and 80’s cartoonists emerged who broke out of the daily editorial mold: comic strip artists such as absurdist Dudu Geva,  Kirschen of the daily strip “Dry Bones”, hyper-realist Shlomo Cohen. Uri Fink of the teen comics “Zbeng”, Michael Netzer with his American oriented comic book style and, Michel Kichka, A franco Belgian BD style cartoonist and a teacher of new generations of cartoon artists; In the 90`s the new school of Israeli cartoonist emerged as The Israeli cartoon association was established in 1992 and in 2000 the first Israeli cartoon festival was taking place and in 2007 the Israeli cartoon museum established.

Today there are many more cartoonists and comics artists since the Internet allows you to see and compare cartoons from multiple creators rather than just the cartoonist of the newspaper you buy.  The line between editorial illustration and editorial cartoons is blurred, though artists like leftist Amos Biderman and rightist Shai Charka are involved partisans in Israel’s constant political arguments.