Thousands protest Swedish art exhibit

AP ^ | January 27 2004 | Tommy Grandell

[fdsa2]

Jan. 27, 2004 | STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) -- Sweden's prime minister has been bombarded with about 14,000 e-mails from a U.S.-based Jewish human rights group protesting an art exhibit featuring the image of a Palestinian suicide bomber, the government said Tuesday.

The flap threatened to overshadow a three-day international conference in Stockholm on preventing genocide that ends Wednesday.

Israel downgraded its representation at the conference after the Museum of National Antiquities refused to remove a display showing a picture of Islamic Jihad bomber Hanadi Jaradat, who killed herself and 21 bystanders in an Oct. 4 suicide attack in Haifa, Israel.

The Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center said the exhibit glorified a "Palestinian homicide bomber" and Sweden should declare suicide bombings a crime against humanity.

In a letter posted on its Web site last week, the center said Sweden has championed the exhibit under the rubric of artistic freedom.

"But what is Sweden prepared to do for the real victims of terror? No nation has yet had the courage to officially come forward to declare suicide bombing 'a crime against humanity,"' the letter said.

Prime Minister Goeran Persson described the protest e-mails as similar to letter campaigns organized by lobby groups.

"We are subject to this kind of mail bombardment every now and then, but I can't say that it's very effective as a way of voicing an opinion," Persson said, describing the letters as "not very threatening."

Foreign Minister Laila Freivalds said the government does not have the right to censure art.

"The government can't influence the museum in its actions, but it's the museum itself that decides what will be shown or not," she said. "We have freedom of expression, and our departments and museums are independent."

Israeli-born artist Dror Feiler, who created "Snow White and the Madness of Truth," said the piece was meant to call attention to how weak, lonely people can be capable of horrible things.

Israeli Ambassador Zvi Mazel tried Jan. 16 to vandalize the display, which is in a rectangular pool filled with red-colored water.

Museum officials rejected Mazel's calls to remove the exhibit but said they would take down 26 posters with Jaradat's face that were placed in Stockholm subway stations to advertise the exhibition.

But Israel lowered its representation at the genocide conference as a result of the flap, sending a diplomat instead of Israeli President Moshe Katzav.

On Tuesday, Persson attended a candlelight ceremony for Holocaust victims in downtown's Raoul Wallenberg Square.

"This is a possibility to reflect on how cruel people can be to each other," Persson said.

"The Holocaust wasn't the end of genocide. I just have to mention Rwanda, I just have to mention Srebrenica. In our time, we are not exempt from attacks against the values of humanity."

Persson also attended a Holocaust memorial service amid tight security at the Stockholm synagogue.

[Reactionary]

"Dror Feiler, who created "Snow White and the Madness of Truth," said the piece was meant to call attention to how weak, lonely people can be capable of horrible things."

Not to mention idiot postmodern "artists."

[veronica]

Riiiiight. Some "weak, lonely people" also killed 3000 people on American soil on 9-11.

[Sam Cree]

So does that mean that the exhibition is not meant to glorify Palestinian terrorists? Or is the artist blaming Israel for the plight of the "Palestinians," much as leftists often blame captitalists for poverty?

"The government can't influence the museum in its actions, but it's the museum itself that decides what will be shown or not," she said. "We have freedom of expression, and our departments and museums are independent."

A worthy sentiment. However, if the museum is funded by taxpayers, its actions can not help but be a reflection on those taxpayers. Or their directors in government.