Saturday, January 17, 2004
Israeli ambassador kicked out of Swedish museum
Agence France-Presse Stockholm, January 17
Israel's ambassador to Sweden was kicked out of Stockholm's Museum of National Antiquities after he destroyed an artwork featuring a picture of a Palestinian suicide bomber, news reports said on Saturday.
The incident, widely reported in the Swedish media, occurred at the opening on Friday of the "Making Differences" exhibit, part of an upcoming international conference on genocide hosted by the Swedish government and in which Israel is scheduled to participate.
"I was really looking forward to seeing what the artists had done. Instead, I was met by a picture of a smiling suicide bomber, the woman who killed 21 people in Haifa a few months ago," ambassador Zvi Mazel told Swedish news agency TT.
The art installation, located in the museum's courtyard, featured a fountain filled with red water, designed to look like blood.
A sailboat with the name Snow White floated on the water, and on it was a photo of a smiling Hanadi Jaradat, the female lawyer who blew herself up in the Haifa suicide bombing attack in October which killed 21 Israelis.
"For me it was intolerable and an insult to the families of the victims. As ambassador to Israel I could not remain indifferent to such an obscene misrepresentation of reality," Mazel said.
© Hindustan Times Ltd. 2004.