Jon Stewart’s coverage of “March of the Parisians” on the Daily Show the other night was fantastic. His guest was Jimmy Carter, who was his fabulous self, but for an episode packed with multiple hysterically executed clips (Hassan, the ‘denounciest’ Muslim ever! – see below ), for me at least – Mohammad Saba’aneh‘s flash appearance stole the show. Did you recognize him?

After a brief introduction a mini montage of the crowd pencil-photos appeared with Stewart claiming “the march gave Parisians a chance to introduce a new icon of liberty”, that pencils were “the new symbol of freedom of expression was everywhere.”
„Bow before new Graphite King, be not afraid“ Screenshot (2:41)

“Bow before new Graphite King, be not afraid” Screenshot (2:41)

Immediately I thought of Saba’aneh’s timeless 2011 Freedom of Expression cartoon we featured in our first article about Saba’aneh when he was detained by Israel back in February 2013.

Stewart emphasized the flagrant hypocrisy of world leaders attending the march, whose regimes are complicit in gross violations of human rights pertaining to the suppression of free speech. Ticking off the names countries — Russia, Egypt, Turkey, blogger-flogging Saudi Arabia, he referenced Israel (renowned for the arrests, imprisonment, and murder of journalists) with a quote “Palestinian cartoonist…work landed him in an Israeli Prison for five months” .. all of the sudden the image jumped off my screen, of the very person on my mind just seconds before; Mohammad Saba’aneh.