Sunday Times cartoon apology

You will know that the Sunday Times abhors anti-Semitism and would never set out to cause offence to the Jewish people - or any other ethnic or religious group.

That was not the intention last Sunday. Everyone knows that Gerald Scarfe is consistently brutal and bloody in his depictions, but last weekend - by his own admission - he crossed a line.

The timing - on Holocaust Memorial Day - was inexcusable. The associations on this occasion were grotesque and on behalf of the paper I’d like to apologise unreservedly for the offence we clearly caused. This was a terrible mistake.

First of all I am not, and never have been, anti-Semitic.

The Sunday Times has given me the freedom of speech over the last 46 years to criticise world leaders for what I see as their wrong-doings.

This drawing was a criticism of Netanyahu, and not of the Jewish people: there was no slight whatsoever intended against them.

I was, however, stupidly completely unaware that it would be printed on Holocaust Day, and I apologise for the very unfortunate timing.