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Last update - 18:51 20/08/2009
Palestinian-American behind 'socialist-joker' Obama poster
By Haaretz Service
Tags: socialist obama joker 

A Palestinian-American has been revealed as the creator of the "socialist joker" image, a doctored poster of President Barack Obama found on highways and in cities across the United States this summer.

Many initially took the portrait - featuring the president with the carved-in smile of Heath Ledgers's character in the Dark Knight - to be the work of a conservative opposed to Obama's liberal ways.

But it turns out that Firas Alkhateeb, 20, is actually a liberal himself from Obama's hometown of Chicago, who would have preferred to see Dennis Kucinich elected.
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Alkhateeb told the Los Angeles Times - which unmasked his identity - that the poster had been meant more as a joke than as a political statement. The original draft of the image was meant to satirize, or in this case "jokerize," Obama's picture on the October cover of Time Magazine.

Regardless of his intentions, the iconic image has turned into a political statement. An Obama critic downloaded Alkhateeb's image off of the photo Web site Flickr, printed it out as a poster, and tacked on the word "socialism" before pasting it up across Los Angeles.

The image has sparked debate among Americans of whether its message is racist, if it is related to the ongoing conversation of reforming health care, and of just how liberal the new U.S. president may be.

But for Alkhateeb, none of this seems to matter. "After Obama was elected, you had all of these people who basically saw him as the second coming of Christ," he told the Los Angeles Times. "From my perspective, there wasn't much substance to him."

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      1.   Bravo, Alkhateeb, you`ve hit.. 13:41  |  Abecassis 20/08/09
      2.   Palestinian-American is right. 14:13  |  GA 20/08/09
      3.   Deceitful headline 14:41  |  T. Haddad 20/08/09
      4.   palestinian-American....poster 15:00  |  Alex 20/08/09
      5.   Well,he`s right... 15:37  |  Malone 20/08/09
      6.   Left and Right; role of govt. and the people 15:37  |  Anonymous 20/08/09
      7.   I guess the Palestinian-American... 15:41  |  Dutch Dirk 20/08/09
      8.   Spokesman for change 16:11  |  Anonymous 20/08/09
      9.   This Is A Meaningless Story... 16:12  |  Yosemite 20/08/09
      10.   Ironic that Alkhateeb wanted someone even MORE socialist 16:17  |  Raymond in DC 20/08/09
      11.   Socialist Obama, Yeah Right! 16:37  |  Haim 20/08/09
      12.   Why even the uproar? 16:38  |  Christopher 20/08/09
      13.   Haim you should sue 16:51  |  Christopher 20/08/09
      14.   Guess he doesn`t need to worry about death threats 16:54  |  IW 20/08/09
      15.   Give Obama a break 17:21  |  Obama voter 20/08/09
      16.   Obama will not save America ! 17:29  |  Akram Zekaria 20/08/09
      17.   IW what`s your point 17:31  |  Pssd Off American 20/08/09
      18.   Palestinian? 17:36  |  An Enquiring Mind 20/08/09
      19.   Someone is going to issue a Fatwah 17:37  |  *BEN JABO 20/08/09
      20.   Sense of humor 17:37  |  jj 20/08/09
      21.   Clearly playing on anti-Arab sentiments 17:39  |  doesn`t matter 20/08/09
      22.   Death threats 17:46  |  Chris 20/08/09
      23.   America - superpower 18:25  |  Anonymous 20/08/09
      24.   BEN JABO:"Someone is going to issue a Fatwah" 18:50  |  Christopher 20/08/09
      25.   So what ? 18:58  |  citizen 20/08/09
      26.   Love this guy! 19:03  |  Petra 20/08/09
      27.   Christopher Boston MASS Bravo! 19:15  |  petra 20/08/09
      28.   He`s a great American, first. 19:17  |  Steve 20/08/09
      29.   #17--My point is this--- 19:17  |  IW 20/08/09
      30.   SO FAR, CARTOON OF THE YEAR! 19:25  |  Petra 20/08/09
      31.   Batman to the rescue! 19:38  |  cwarn 20/08/09
      32.   16- Obama will not save America. (corrections). 19:55  |  Akram Zekaria 20/08/09
      33.   The irony is of course... 20:06  |  Michael Greenberg 20/08/09
      34.   Bad editing 20:25  |  David 20/08/09
      35.   It`s a Jewish/Mossad plot! No? 21:03  |  just wondering 20/08/09
      36.   And all this time... 02:38  |  Heather Czerniak 21/08/09
      37.   MUCH better than Hamas TV hero killing the President 08:29  |  PETER SM 21/08/09
      38.   Obama 13:41  |  theplaintruth 21/08/09
      39.   REMARKABLE LIKENESS. 14:23  |  Petra 21/08/09
      40.   It`s a lie! The Mossad is behind the caricature 15:40  |  Mohamed 21/08/09
      41.   When are you going to remove this disgusting picture? 17:19  |  Isadora 22/08/09
      42.   Should US govt. ask Israeli govt. to denounce this story? 17:23  |  Max 22/08/09
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