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MONTREAL-A Montreal daily faced accusations of anti-Semitism on Wednesday over its depiction in a cartoon of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a vampire.

La Presse, a digital-only French-language newspaper, showed Netanyahu with pointed ears and claws, standing in a long coat on the deck of a sailing ship, reminiscent of the vampire in the 1922 film Nosferatu.

Beneath it was a caption that read “Nosfenyahou en route to Rafah.” Long-standing anti-Semitic tropes, including those used by the Nazis, have likened Jews to vampires.

The head of La Press apologized and said the cartoon was meant as a criticism of the Israeli government and not the Jewish people.

Concern has mounted in Canada and globally over the military conflict in Gaza-including a planned Israeli assault on the city of Rafah-in which Netanyahu has vowed to destroy Hamas in response to a deadly attack by its militants on October 7.

Canadian politicians, Jewish leaders and others immediately criticized the cartoon, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau who called it “distasteful.”

“It is unacceptable to bring back anti-Semitism and allusions like that,” Trudeau said. Several of Trudeau’s ministers were also critical of the cartoon, calling it “egregious” and an “anti-Semitic trope,” and warning that it risked increasing already high tensions in Canada related to the fighting in Gaza.

By midday the cartoon had been taken down and La Presse issued an apology. Its editor-in-chief Stephanie Grammond said the cartoon was meant to be a criticism of the Israeli government, “not the Jewish people.”

“It was never our intention to promote anti-Semitism or harmful stereotypes,” Grammond said. Montreal is home to a large Jewish community. (AFP)