Dwayne Booth, known by his pen name “Mr. Fish,” is a university lecturer at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania and a freelance cartoonist. He has gained notoriety for using his public platform to propagate antisemitic themes, trivialize the Holocaust, and promote hateful, inflammatory rhetoric through his artwork and public statements.

Trivializing the Holocaust and Promoting Antisemitism

Booth’s cartoons have repeatedly invoked Holocaust imagery to target Jews and Israelis — a hallmark of contemporary antisemitism as defined by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA). His published works have generated serious concern for their grotesque visual language and historically offensive comparisons.

• November 2, 2023: Booth published a cartoon of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shoveling human skulls into a crematorium. The caption read:

  “BENJAMIN NETANYAHU CHARGING FULL STEAM AHEAD INTO THE HISTORY BOOKS AS THE FIRST ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER MAGNANIMOUS ENOUGH TO BRING EVERY LAST PALESTINIAN MAN, WOMAN, AND CHILD IN ON THE PEACE PROCESS.”
  This cartoon invoked direct Holocaust imagery, equating Israeli policy with Nazi genocide.

• November 8, 2023: Another cartoon implied that Palestinians were facing a Holocaust-scale genocide. The text grotesquely claimed:

  “IT’S IMPERATIVE THAT WE INCINERATE THEM AND EVERYTHING THEY HAVE…SO THERE WILL BE NOTHING LEFT FOR THEM TO CURATE EXCEPT THEIR ANTI-SEMITISM.”

• February 1, 2024: In a now-deleted cartoon, Booth depicted Nazi concentration camp prisoners holding signs like “STOP THE HOLOCAUST IN GAZA” and “GAZA THE WORLD’S BIGGEST CONCENTRATION CAMP.”
  The cartoon trivialized the suffering of actual Holocaust victims and distorted history for political ends.

These works triggered widespread backlash, including from Interim UPenn President J. Larry Jameson, who publicly condemned Booth in February 2024, stating:

“…[the cartoons] include antisemitic symbols, and [are] incongruent with our efforts to fight hate. They disrespect the feelings and experiences of many people in our community and around the world, particularly those only a generation removed from the Holocaust.”

Glorifying Violence and Dehumanization

Booth’s later works became increasingly violent and grotesque:

• December 7, 2023: One cartoon showed three men drinking blood labeled “Gaza” while sneering at a white dove, captioned:

  “Who invited that lousy anti-Semite?”

• Another showed a gun decorated with an Israeli flag aimed at a baby’s head in an incubator, titled:

  “THE EXECUTIONER’S SONG.”

Booth’s imagery relies on demonization, blood libel tropes, and the dehumanization of Israelis, portraying soldiers and leaders as monsters while encouraging moral equivalence between democratic self-defense and mass murder.

Institutional Inaction and Continued Influence

Despite public condemnation by the university president and growing alarm among students and alumni, Booth continues to serve as a lecturer at UPenn’s Annenberg School for Communication. His sustained presence in the classroom has raised serious concerns about the impact of such rhetoric on students and the broader academic culture.

In March 2024, Booth was cited in a letter circulated by a group of UPenn alumni and students recommending disciplinary action against eight professors allegedly involved in antisemitic behavior. Yet, no reported disciplinary measures have been taken against him to date.

Conclusion

Dwayne Booth’s record of antisemitic cartoons, grotesque depictions of violence, and abuse of Holocaust imagery make him one of the most radical and dangerous propagandists operating under the guise of academic freedom. His continued employment at a leading U.S. university is a stain on UPenn’s credibility and a threat to the safety and dignity of its Jewish students.