Israel's ambassador to Sweden was accused of destroying a piece of "art" depicting a Palestinian suicide bomber in a Stockholm museum on Friday.
The art installation, entitled "Snow White and the Madness of Truth," consisted of a rectangular basin filled with red water on which floated a boat carrying a portrait of Hanadi Jaradat, who killed herself and 21 others in an attack at the Maxim restaurant in Haifa on October 4.Swedish Radio reported that Ambassador Mazel ripped out electrical wires attached to the art work and threw a spotlight in the basin.
Kristian Berg, the museum's director, said he realized the installation may have been emotional for Mazel, but that destroying art was unacceptable.Kristian Berg included the "artwork" that celebrated a mass murderer in an exhibition for a program called "Preventing Genocide".
UPDATE
The revised version of the source article now quotes the ambassador as explaining that he merely unplugged some lights that were illuminating the piece, which he described as "An obscene distortion of reality". The artist is identified as Dror Feiler, an Israeli expat who has been in Stockholm since 1973. Feiler heads a Swedish organization called "Jews for Israeli-Palestinian Peace", whose manifesto calls Israel's elected Prime Minister "the biggest threat to the Israeli people and to Jews around the world".
This text accompanied the display that Mazel objected to. It describes the suicide bombing, ending in the words
and the red looked beautiful upon the whiteIt's hard to see it as anything but glorifying a suicide bomber, especially in light of the artist's background.
Feiler was to have performed at the exhibition, but threatened not to perform if Mazel was present. Feiler describes himself as
* Eye - bleeding ultimate composer of intifadic and eruptive lung - outs.As my dad would say, "is that a threat or a promise?"
* Music trasher , saxophone screamer and a computer terrorist.
Museum Director Kristian Berg's email address is kristian.berg@historiska.se. Why not drop him a line and let him know that artwork which glorifies genocide is inappropriate for a program about preventing genocide.
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at January 17, 2004 09:35 AMI've long believed that if there can be such a thing as justifiable homicide, there must also be circumstances where vandalism may be justifiable. This one fits the bill IMO.
Posted by: Xrlq on January 17, 2004 02:13 PMHow does one vandalize garbage?
Posted by: cubanbob on January 17, 2004 02:52 PMOnce upon a time in Sweden, under the occupation, the King & Queen affixed yellow stars on their clothes in defiance of the Nazis and in solidarity with their Jewish citizens. Raoul Wallenberg (http://www.jfr.org/bookstore/rescuebk.html)was an exemplary Swede of that age. What a difference a few generations can make.
To those Swedes since WWII, you are the product of the soft muddled amoralness of socialist comfort. The process has robbed you of your history and moral core. You are slobs not worthy of your past.
The Israeli ambassador has no need to apologize. There are limits to what decent men will tolerate.
Posted by: penny on January 17, 2004 04:15 PM"Once upon a time in Sweden, under the occupation, the King & Queen affixed yellow stars on their clothes in defiance of the Nazis and in solidarity with their Jewish citizens."
No that was Denmark.
Posted by: Yehudit on January 17, 2004 07:52 PMOnce upon a time in Sweden, under the occupation, the King & Queen affixed yellow stars on their clothes in defiance of the Nazis and in solidarity with their Jewish citizens.No that was Denmark.
But it didn't actually happen in Denmark, either.
Drudge links to the story by saying
"Israeli embassador kicked out of museum after vandalizing Art"
Kesher says that Israeli embassador requested it be removed ahead of time and he was refused.
Futher, every exhibit about the conflict was pro Palestinian and anti-Israeli. There was one exhibit which was pro Israeli but Syria protested it and it was then removed!!
YES YOU READ THAT CORRECTLY.
http://www.hfienberg.com/kesher/2004_01_11_kesher_archive.html#107438373509695774
When will we see Osama's photo floating in a pool in Sweden? Or will it be Atta's smiling mug?
I am actually kind of appalled at what the ambassador did... but I believe in my heart that I too would have waded through that pool and stomped that terrorist bitch's photo into oblivion... and I'm not even Jewish.
911
Sweden... Their complicit willingness to supply Iron Ore to Nazi Germany led to the subjugation of Norway and Finland, her neighbors, while she was comfortably, and profitably, spared. Appeasement works there apparently. How many Ovens were built with Swedish Steel?
Posted by: DANEgerus on January 18, 2004 01:37 PMThe rumour about an artwork being removed after Syria protested is false. The artwork is still in the exhibition, but it was indeed moved from Tensta Konsthall to Historiska Museet so it could be shown together with the other artworks.
By the way, anybody with any sense would understand that the artwork is against all forms of terrorism. Just read the text of the artwork.
Just this morning the artist himself rhetoricly asked what would have happend if he instead had used a picture or Arial Sharon floating in a pool of blood and having a text calling him a murder of innocents. By your logic that would have been a very pro Israel artwork.
Posted by: Staffan V on January 20, 2004 03:20 AMI just searched some public discussion about this interesting art conflict in Sweden and accidentely I found this place.
What amazes me in this whole episode is that all jews judge it directly and take a very black-and-white view over it. For me, when I first saw this work, I thought that it's very smart, multi layered and .....finally, anti-palestine, (pro-jew), artwork.
A White (clean, innocent) suicade bomber!?! What an Irony! For me this work represents a picture of where one person willingly loses everything - here life - in strong faith that what she is doing is good ... and the truth is quite the opposite: blood, grief and the endless spiral of violence where she has just been another link of chain, without understanding it. What a tragedy!
The picture on the boat describes especially her personal faith, that she is on the good side... and when to scope zooms out, the whole artwork shows the ruthless truth *after* the action, that she can't see anymore because she is gone. Everything in vain, for false beliefs and for nothing. Her imaginary belief has turned false, but she don't know it. Why the next one (certainly there is waiting one), can't understand it?
For my opinion, Jews are purely victims in this artowork, the woman is the betrayed subject: clean from her (ex) viewpoint, something quite the opposite after the very wrong decision.
How an earth this work can be somehow anti-semitistic?? I can't understand, for my opinion it's the very opposite.
Antti, Staffan, YOU are part of the problem. Wake up, innocent fools. Evil must be fought. Fight it or be it, the choice is yours.
Posted by: pedro on January 20, 2004 03:20 PM"Wake up, innocent fools. Evil must be fought."
What is so evil with wanting to promote peace?
Posted by: Staffan V on January 22, 2004 09:15 AMStaffan and Antti - your excruciating explanations and analysis of the "art work" are completely off-subject.
The bottom line is that:
1) A Palestinian mass murderer deliberately killed women, children and babies by blowing herself up in a crowded Israeli restaurant (for more details see http://www.factsofisrael.com/load.php?p=/blog/archives/000700.html ).
2) The "art work" displayed in this Swedish museum glorifed this mass murderer by portraying a beautiful "Snow White"-like female, very white with red lips. This "Snow White" is none other than the mass murderer from above; and to add insult to injury she floats on the blood of the women and babies she has killed.
I sincerely hope you never loose someone you love. But if you do lose your wife, your Mother, or your child to a mass murderer - I also hope you'll never have to see a picture of the killer glorified in a Swedish Museum.
I fully agree that the end result this women, and all the others have done are terrible. But you have to understand that your background and those painfull memories etc. you have affect so much to your viewpoint that you can see nothing but one message in this artwork. You can't say that this is the only and right one. It's your view, because of your emotions and inborn hate agaist you enemies. Your viev is understandable, but at the same time we don't have those memories and social pressures and therefore for us this artwork has lot to say. Much broader and deeped, message than yours; " you bad, we good ... good kills bad" -kind of very straigthforward thinking. Our background is from here, from 50 years continuous peace. It's definately different, as I tried to describe earlier.
Yet, we have in Finland unfortunaly too much experience in killings...in second WW our war against Soviet Union was really hard stuff. Over 80 000 lost soldiers and thousands of civilians victims + 400 000 refugees, who we forced to leave their homes premanently. (400 000 killed soviets on the other side. Remember that the whole population of Finland was then about 4 million). Entire generation of men we injured ... especially mentally and we are still experiencing this pain. Too much fathers, unable to feel, speak, express themselves and, eventually, love and care about their children. Which created one generation of children so affected by their parents' heroism that their only way on earn their place in the world were through hard working...workholic generation.
Only until past decade our mental athmosphere has been changing and has changed....50 years after the war!... and at the same time, our nationwide hate against Russians are little by little easing (among young people). When "action is on", there got be enemy, we had it as well. It takes at least two full generations before, majority of people can feel neutral way about their ex-enemies.
So, what I try to tell you is that your opinion is probably justified, but you can't come to other side of the world to start wreck some artwork, that tells something very different message to the majority of audience. You can say your opinion, but that's all. This way, your ambassador made certainly more enemies to you.
Finally (especially for pedro): If the majority of Israelities are like you, I really don't wonder that the situation in Israel is like it is right now. I have been pretty pro-israel before (even visited there), but may be I have to check my attitudes. Our WW2 ended to a huge compromise peace. All wars finally ends to a peace, so, be prepared for it.
For DANEgerus: Your knowledge in history is quite wrong. Swedish Iron really did not lead to Finland's "subjugation"....Finland was never controlled by Nazis nor Soviet Union... we co-operate with Nazi Germany in order to get weapons that western states didn't give us in our Winter War 1939 against Soviet Union. (Think yourselves without US support! Without money & weapons!).
Furthermore, Sweden as well as Estonia sent us remarkable amount of voulanteers that was important aid for our fight against SU. Sweden clearly understood, that Finland was their "buffer" against, even more evil nation, Soviet Union. Thereby, they gave us all help that could without losing their official neutrality status. That was pretty difficult, but they managed it well.
br, Antti
(sorry all typos, I really didn't have time to check this writing)
Posted by: Antti on January 22, 2004 03:23 PMNo need for Ambassador Mazel to destroy this art work, when he could have settled with just ordering the building of a high "security barrier" around it.
Posted by: John L on January 24, 2004 04:00 AMDavid Melle you are only partially right.
1) Yes, nobody argues that a picture of a suicide bomber is used in the artwork.
2) The artwork in no way "glorifed this mass murderer". It is actually very critical of terrorism. It calls her a murderer of innocents and pictures her as floating in blood. Could it be any clearer?
I think your problem is that you have a black-or-white view. You fail to see anything in shades of grey. Actually that's partially what the artwork is about. The white boat symbolizes the truth and the artist have said that is you think you have 100% of the truth you will float in a pool of blood. That you think you have 100% of the truth is an indication that you too are capable of commiting horrible acts.