Zoom Rockman has won pocket political cartoon of the year at the Political Cartoon Awards 2023 for his cartoon on antisemitism.

The 'You can't do anything these days without being seen as an antisemite' cartoon was Rockman's last to be published in Private Eye before his resignation from the magazine over its ‘Private Eye for an Eye’ cover in the issue 1609.

In his acceptance speech for the award on Tuesday night, Rockman thanked fellow cartoonist Steve Bell - who won runner up political cartoonist of the year for ‘The Strube Spoon’, and whose contract was not renewed by the Guardian after a row over a cartoon he drew of Benjamin Netanyahu - for inspiring the cartoon.

'You can't do anything these days without being seen as an antisemite' cartoon

On his win, Rockman told the JC: “It was a surreal experience because this was my last cartoon published in Private Eye before I quit, but I’m very grateful to everyone who voted for me. I thanked Steve Bell for inspiring the cartoon in the first place.

Rockman added that he is “pleased” to see his antisemitism cartoon win “because it’s a really relevant topic at the moment which only seems to be getting worse”.

Tim Benson, who runs the awards, said of Rockman: "I like cartoonists who have convictions, who actually believe in something. If, as cartoonists, they are not prepared to stand up for what they believe in, then why should we as readers, invest in what they have to say? In fact, it gives their work far greater validity."

Rockman quit working for Private Eye after six years and 137 cartoons published in the satirical news magazine, following the “incendiary” cover of issue 1609, which suggested that the Israeli government’s intention is to kill ''everyone in Gaza” in revenge for the Hamas massacre of October 7. When Rockman voiced his disappointment in the cover on Twitter/X, one of the responses from people on the social media platform was a death threat that read: “Hope both you and your extended family get to meet Hamas in person, very soon.”