Posted on 01/18/2004 6:16:30 AM PST by veronica
"The whole problem is by and large based on a misunderstanding, a misinterpretation of a piece of art which may very well be in bad taste," Sweden's ambassador to Israel Robert Rydberg said Sunday after meeting Israeli Foreign Ministry officials on the diplomatic affair in which Israel's ambassador to Sweden Zvi Mazel damaged on Friday a Stockholm art exhibit that depicted a Palestinian terrorist as Snow White.
During the meeting dozens of terror victims' relatives demonstrated near the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem, Israel Radio reported.
Rydvberg told the radio that the meeting with the Foreign Ministry officials went well. He said that the artwork was not a justification of suicide bombers. "The piece is about a Palestinian woman having murdered innocent civilians. It mentions the names of the tragic Israeli victims in Haifa. It is not a justification of suicide bombings. It is in my view an example of bad taste, but I think the whole issue has been blown out of proportion," Rydberg said.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in a telephone conversation late Saturday with Mazel expressed support for the ambassador's turning off the lights of, and damaging the art exhibit, Army Radio reported Sunday.
Sharon said that the entire government stands behind the ambassador, and that the gravity of the Stockholm display demanded a response. "We are witnessing a rise in anti-Semitism, and will increase our efforts to fight the phenomenon," Sharon said.
Zvi Mazel was captured on video unplugging electrical wires around the exhibit's basin. A spotlight appeared to be pushed into the tub that was filled with red-colored fluid and on which a boat carrying a picture of Hanadi Jaradat, the woman who killed 21 Jewish and Arab Israelis at Haifa's Maxim restaurant in October 2003, floated.
Mazel was unrepentant about damaging the "Snow White and the Madness of Truth" exhibit at Stockholm's Historical Museum. "My wife and I stood there and began to tremble," he said on the Ynet site. "There was the terrorist, wearing perfect makeup and sailing placidly along the rivers of blood of my brothers and the families that were murdered."
The envoy told Haaretz that his protest was not spontaneous; he had planned the act after learning about the exhibit in the local press. He said he could not understand how an exhibition devoted to preventing genocide can feature a work that casts the murderer of 22 Israelis as Snow White. "In my eyes, that's not art; it's abominable," he said.
The incident made headlines in Sweden's media on Saturday, and most, but not all, commentators criticized the ambassador's behavior.
Foreign Ministry officials defended Mazel's action on Saturday, denouncing the "atrocious" exhibit and saying its presentation cannot be excused by appeals to artistic freedom. The ministry said in an official statement that the exhibit violated an understanding that an international forum to be held next week in Stockholm called "Preventing Genocide: Threats and Responsibilities" would not be linked with intifada conflict. The Historical Museum exhibition is being held in tribute to the conference.
"The exhibit that glorified the actions of a suicide bomber who murdered 22 people is a violation of understandings; and if it is not removed, Israel will reconsider its participation in the conference," the statement said.
Curator of the Tel Aviv Museum, Doron Luria, said Sunday that he understood Mazel and that the artwork was an inferior piece of provocation. "The piece is simply not worth all of the excitement…I sympathize completely with the ambassador's actions. There is no place for such an idiotic piece in Stockholm," Luria said.
Sweden summons Mazel to explain actions Israeli officials predicted Saturday that Sweden's government will reprimand Mazel on Monday during a clarification meeting convened by its Foreign Ministry.
Mazel "will have the opportunity to explain why he did what he did," Catherine von Heidenstam, chief of protocol at the Foreign Ministry said.
The exhibit is the work of an Israeli expatriate musician and artist, Dror Feiler, who has been active in "Jews for Israeli-Palestinian peace," a Stockholm-based group opposed to Israeli activities in the territories. As background music to his exhibit, the Tel Aviv-born Feiler mixed music from Bach's 199 Cantata "My Heart Swims in Blood." Feiler castigated Mazel's action as vandalism.
"At last, he managed to render something which caused a political outcry - that's what is called artistic terror," Buki Greenberg, a friend of Feiler's and fellow musician-artist, said Saturday.
Feiler told Army Radio Sunday morning that his artwork was misunderstood. "The display itself is against violence. It can be summed up by a biblical quote: 'He who spills human blood shall have his own blood spilled by man,' and this is exactly what we need to put an end to. The Israeli ambassador caused diplomatic and political damage to Israel, and since he is an intellectual midget, his actions were similar to those of a stall owner in a third world country," Feiler said.
Historical Museum Director Kristian Berg said that the exhibit will remain on display. "You can have your own view of what this piece of art is all about, but using violence is never, ever allowed, and it is never allowed to try to silence the artist," he said.
In recent months, Israel's Foreign Ministry has invested considerable effort to ensure that the Israeli-Palestinian dispute is kept off the agenda of the genocide conference. "The goal has been to prevent the Durbanization of this conference," a top Foreign Ministry official said Saturday, referring to the eruption of anti-Israeli protests at the 2001 human rights conference in the South African city.
Israeli officials were infuriated Saturday by reports that organizers of the genocide conference invited Feiler to exhibit his work at the museum. A senior ministry official reiterated last night that "the Swedes are well aware that this exhibit infringes our agreements with them."
Israeli MK Ahmed Tibi (Hadash) attacked the Foreign Ministry on Saturday for defending what he called Mazel's "reprehensible act of bullying."
"The government that uses bulldozers in the territories, demolishes houses and uproots trees also relies on bullying in its diplomacy," Tibi said.
Public Security Minister Tzachi Hanegbi on Saturday said that the Israeli ambassador should be awarded a citation for intentionally damaging the artwork.
"If there is a situation in which an ambassador should act in an undiplomatic manner, this is it," the Likud minister said, adding that he was "proud of the ambassador."
Hanegbi said that Israel's ambassador to Sweden behaved as he did in order to shock public opinion and to emphasize the insanity in which a mass murderer is portrayed as a heroine.
"This is the ambassador's duty, and in [Sunday's] government meeting I will call for him to be awarded a special citation for his actions, even if they were extreme," the minister said.
Immersing crucifix in the urine or covering the depiction of Virgin Mary with elephant dung should not be considered art either. Or if it is an art, it means that not all art is good or worthy of support and toleration.
What a pompous putz this despicable creature is.
I had to think a little about how he may have interpreted it to understand why he reacted like he did.
Both the museum director and the "artist" are displaying their total ignorance of the meaning of art. The Israeli ambassador's actions were not a political act meant to silence dissent. Instead, clearly the ambassador's act was an act of "performance art", and it ought to be understood and cherished as such. It was a mistake for them to clean up the exhibit - they would certainly have recognized that if they had been true art cognoscenti rather than mere poseurs. (and I am only half joking here)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.