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JK Rowling accused of creating anti-Semitic goblins in the Harry Potter franchise

JK Rowling accused of creating anti-Semitic goblins in the Harry Potter franchise

American comedian Jon Stewart drew a comparison between the goblins depicted in the films and anti-Semitic illustrations.
05 Jan, 2022

Does JK Rowling depict Jews in a problematic way in the Harry Potter franchise? American comedian and political commentator Jon Stewart says yes, she certainly does.

Stewart criticised Rowling — the author behind the acclaimed Harry Potter novels that were adapted into a film series — of creating anti-Semitic goblins in an episode of The Problem With Jon Stewart that was released in December 2021 but recently begun to gain traction online.

"Here's how you know Jews are still where they are," he says in the video. "Talking to people, what I say is 'Have you ever seen a Harry Potter movie?', and people are like 'I love Harry Potter movies'. I'm like 'You ever see the scenes in Gringotts Bank?'. They're like 'I love the scenes in Gringotts Bank'. Do you know what those folks that run the bank are? Jews!"

Stewart went on to compare the illustrations of goblins as seen in the Harry Potter movies with the anti-Semitic illustrations featured in the 1903 book The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. "I just want to show you a caricature [from the book] and they're like 'Oh, look at that, that's from Harry Potter'. No, that's a caricature of a Jew from an anti-Semitic piece of literature. JK Rowling was like 'Can we get these guys to run our bank?'

"This is a wizarding world. It's a world where the train has half a thing and no one can see it, and we can ride dragons and you've got a pet owl. And who should run the bank? Jews," Stewart exclaimed.

Talking about seeing the goblins in the Harry Potter movies films, Stewart said "It was one of those things where I saw it on the screen and I was expecting the crowd to be like '[Oh no], she did not, in a wizarding world, just throw Jews in there to run the underground bank and everyone was like 'Wizards'. It was so weird."

Rowling was previously the subject of controversy because of a string of tweets accused of being transphobic in 2020. Her remarks sparked outrage online from fans and members of the LGBT+ community.

In the Harry Potter 20th anniversary TV special that aired on January 1— which saw the reunion of stars Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint and other cast members from the blockbuster film franchise — Rowling did not make a personal appearance in light of the transphobia controversy.

Comments

ENGR Hamid shafiq Jan 05, 2022 01:18pm
Does any one take care of innocent killing of Palestinian in the hands of Israeli forces?
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Dr Salaria Ahmed Part II Jan 05, 2022 01:21pm
JK is just the front man. Or shall we say front woman.
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Ahmed khan lehri Jan 05, 2022 01:36pm
Labelling Muslims as terrorists and associating every crime to Muslims in every movie is not seemed anti-Islam but showing Jews problematic only in one movie is anti-Semitic. Hypocrisy is at its peak ...
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Semite Christian Jan 05, 2022 01:52pm
Everyone is anti septic right way? It is getting so old now. Any words on what Israelis are doing to the Palestinians? Deep Pockets!
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Memon Abdul Jan 05, 2022 02:07pm
@Dr Salaria Ahmed Part II front-man - "front-woman" is not a word just like "business-woman" is not a word!
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Skeptic Kangaroo Jan 05, 2022 02:16pm
People finding issues where there are none and completely ignoring the issues that do exist. "You're killing innocent people!" "Hey! They drew a bad picture of us!"
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FAZ Jan 05, 2022 04:34pm
@ENGR Hamid shafiq They don't run the "banks". So the world won't bother of them being killed.
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Truth be told Jan 05, 2022 06:49pm
Muslims are always depicted as hijackers, terrorists and troublemakers. Blacks are always shown as thieves, thugs, robbers, murderers and drug pins. If jews are depicted in their true essence i.e. money hoarders, greedy, heartless and cunning then why complain. I am surprised how Jew and Hindu mentality is similar and come up with similar criticism of everything.
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Truth be told Jan 05, 2022 06:50pm
@Ahmed khan lehri absolutely.
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Zeeshan Ahmed Jan 05, 2022 07:33pm
Hollywood depicts every ethnicity and religious stereotype except Jews.
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Jap Jan 07, 2022 01:49pm
Depiction of fairy-tale creatures that are bankers with the resemblance of Jews is anti-semitic, but blatantly depicting Muslims as terrorists and extremists is acceptable? Even solidarity with Palestinians against Israeli aggressions is termed as anti-semitic. Should not conflate anti-Zionism with anti-semitism.
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