amigocabal

Sweden sees red over art attack
Stockholm takes Israeli envoy to task after he damages 'anti-Semitic' museum
artwork

STOCKHOLM - A spat between Israel and Sweden over a controversial Stockholm
art exhibit showing a Palestinian suicide bomber has turned into a
full-scale diplomatic row.


Mr Mazel says the exhibit filled him with revulsion -- AFP
Israel's Ambassador to Sweden Zvi Mazel yesterday defended his vandalisation
of the artwork, which he claimed glorified suicide bombers, when he was
summoned to the Swedish Foreign Ministry to explain himself.

He said he was overwhelmed with revulsion when he saw the work, Snow White
And The Madness Of Truth, at an exhibition in the Museum of National
Antiquities in Stockholm at the weekend.

The exhibit, by an Israeli-born artist, features a blood-coloured pool of
water with a boat carrying a portrait of Hanadi Jaradat, a suicide bomber
who killed herself and 22 Israelis last October.

The ambassador dismantled the electrical cables connecting the spotlights
and threw one of them into the water.

Yesterday, he met the Swedish Foreign Ministry's head of protocol, Ms
Catherine von Heidenstam, for more than an hour. He said he did not regret
his actions and reiterated Israel's demand that the artwork be removed.

'I have no regrets whatsoever. I acted according to my feelings. You saw the
installation and what happened. I could not have acted differently,' he told
Swedish news agency TT.


ANTI-SEMITISM: REVIVAL IN EUROPE, SAYS ENVOY
THERE has long been a debate over where legitimate criticism of Israel ends
and anti-Semitism begins.

But the current round has touched a deeper chord because many Israelis feel
that outsiders often justify the Palestinians' use of suicide bombings
against civilians.

Israeli Ambassador Zvi Mazel said the key issue was far broader than the
controversial exhibit in Stockholm, or his behaviour.

He said a revival of European anti-Semitism - intensified by anti-American
feelings and the growing influence of Muslim minorities in Europe - was
causing a heavy pro-Palestinian bias in Europe and endangering Jewish lives.

But Mr Par Nuder, a minister in the office of Swedish Prime Minister Goran
Persson, said: 'Whatever you think of the exhibit, you cannot behave as the
ambassador did. It's unacceptable.'

The embassy's Swedish landlord had asked that the embassy be moved to a
different location, Mr Mazel told Israel Radio.

The landlord told the diplomatic staff that the Israeli presence in the
building posed a threat to the other residents, the Jerusalem Post reported.

The embassy has been located in the same building for more than 50 years.

But Israel continued to display defiance. Mr Mazel said the demand to
relocate the embassy was part of 'the general atmosphere of hostility
towards Israel all around Europe, Sweden included'.

In another interview, he said: 'This exhibit was the culmination of dozens
of anti-Israel and anti-Jewish events in Sweden.

'When you don't protest, it gets worse and worse. It had to be stopped
somehow, even by deviating from the behaviour of the buttoned-down
diplomat.'

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon praised his ambassador for taking a
stand against 'a growing wave of anti-Semitism'.

Mr Mazel, who was appointed ambassador to Sweden in 2002, said he feared a
revival of European anti-Semitism.

Still, some saw in Mr Mazel's statements a diplomatic sleight of hand.

Mr Moshe Zimmermann, a professor of European history at the Hebrew
University of Jerusalem, said that while Muslims in Europe had adopted
anti-Semitic slogans, 'there is no big anti-Semitic wave among the
Europeans'.

He said complaints about anti-Semitism were meant as a cover for 'the
destructive actions of Israel' in the West Bank and Gaza. -- Financial
Times, AFP, AP