CARTOONIST Steve Bell has effectively been sacked by the Guardian newspaper for an alleged “anti-semitic” work, he has revealed to the Morning Star.

Mr Bell, who had worked for the publication for 42 years, said that the decision had been “a bit of a shock.”

Earlier this week, he revealed that the Guardian refused to publish an image over concerns about “anti-semitic tropes.”

The cartoon was of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in boxing gloves, preparing to operate on his own torso, where an outline shape of the Gaza Strip could be seen.

The caption read: “Residents of Gaza, get out now.”

Mr Bell’s drawing refers to a cartoon by David Levine from the 1960s picturing then-US president Lyndon Johnston with a scar on his belly shaped like the map of Vietnam.

But critics have condemned the drawing, interpreting it as a reference to the “pound of flesh” demanded by the vengeful Jewish father character in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice.

While the Guardian declined to comment, Mr Bell defended his work on Twitter, writing: “I filed this cartoon around 11am, possibly my earliest ever.

“Four hours later, on a train to Liverpool, I received an ominous phone call from the desk with the strangely cryptic message ‘pound of flesh’...”

He added that he told the desk that he did not understand, and agreed with a Twitter user who said that the Shakespeare reference would not work in the political context of Israel.

Mr Bell argued that a key part of the image was Mr Netanyahu “wearing boxing gloves.”

Speaking to the Morning Star, Mr Bell said that the Guardian has “a new process of vetting content, even for undrawn cartoons, that has come in recently.

“It’s getting more and more impossible to safeguard the freedom you need to be a cartoonist,” he said. “I’ve worked on this paper for 42 years and these kinds of problems have only come up recently.

“I used to do three editorial cartoons a week. They have cut it right back to three a month, and [now] they got rid of it completely.

“I’d have been happy drawing if [I could] for the rest of my life.”

Mr Bell said the decision was devastating, adding: “They said they won’t publish anything more of mine even though I am on the books until April 2024.”