Ambassador to Sweden is a Hooligan
When a diplomat is appointed as an Ambassador, he/she represents the image, values and integrity of his/her country. He/she brings all that is good about the country to others.
In the case of Israel's ambassador to Sweden, that is NOT the case.
Latest Update: Justin Raimondo's review of Israeli ambassador's hoolinganism:"Israel Versus Free Speech" When Israel's ambassador to Sweden vandalized a work of art that he found offensive on exhibition at Sweden's Museum of National Antiquities, Zvi Mazel did the world a service: he opened our eyes to Israel's descent into barbarism. Just as Israeli tanks bulldoze entire blocks of Palestinian homes, so her ambassador seeks to bulldoze the rising tide of protest against Israeli government policies in the West.
Update (10.43 am)
Free speech is everywhere the enemy of Israel's interests – and the Israelis know it. That's why their amen corner, both here and abroad, is ratcheting up the campaign to smear critics of Israel and impose limits on their right of free expression: "Freedom of art is not limitless," brays Mazel. "There are always some limits."
The only thing there seems to be no limit on is the brazen aggression of Israel and its apologists. Read HERE for MORE.... The head of Sweden’s Jewish community, Leah Pozner-Kershaw, criticized Israeli ambassador to Sweden, Zvi Mazel, after the incident.
What was the behavior of Zvi Mazel, Israel's ambassador to Sweden at the Stockholm's Museum of National Antiquities over the weekend?
Most Swedes are quite upset that an ambassador reacted so strongly and with force to a piece of art,” Pozner-Kershaw told Israel’s Channel Two television. “This is getting too much attention.”
“The issue is not whether this is or isn’t a good artwork,” a Tel Aviv museum curator, Tami Katz-Freiman, told the Jerusalem Post. “The issue is that there are legitimate ways to express opposition to a work of art, and vandalism is not one of them.”
“If this is what an Israeli ambassador does abroad, who is to prevent people from coming to the Tel Aviv museum and vandalizing works they find politically disturbing?”
About 400 invited guests went into shock when Israel's ambassador vandalised a work of art. Israel's ambassador to Sweden ripped out electrical wires, grabbed a spotlight and hurled it into a fountain, causing it to short circuit and become a potential death trap.
Kristian Berg, the director of the museum, said of Mazel: "He pulled out the plugs and threw one of the spotlights into the fountain which caused the entire installation to short-circuit and made it totally life-threatening." The ambassador was caught in the act on videotape.
The work of art on display in the Swedish Museum was called "Snow White and the Madness of Truth" . It featured a basin filled with red water, designed to look like blood. A sailboat with the name Snow White floated on the water, and placed like a sail was a photograph of a smiling Hanadi Jaradat, the 29-year-old Palestinian lawyer who blew herself up in the Haifa suicide bombing in October which killed 21 Israelis.
Zvi Mazel was ejected out from the building.
Sweden's Foreign Ministry said Mazel had behaved improperly and that it would summon him for talks on Monday to hear his side of the incident. Anna Larsson, a spokeswoman for the Swedish foreign ministry, said: 'We will contact him on Monday to arrange a meeting. We want to give him a chance to explain himself. We feel that it is unacceptable for him to destroy art in this way.'
The artwork was designed by Israeli-born Dror Feiler and his Swedish wife Gunilla Skoeld Feiler, both of whom denied the work was a "glorification" of the suicide bomber. Mr. Feiler is a member of Jews for Israeli-Palestinian Peace, a group based in Stockholm that opposes the Israeli occupation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Dror Feiler said, " (The Ambassador) said he was ashamed that I was a Jew. We see this as an offensive assault on our right to express our thoughts and feelings. Mazel tried to stop free speech and free artistic expression from being carried out in Sweden." Feilor called the ambassador an "intellectual dwarf".
According to Feiler, the ambassador is like "a crazed soccer hooligan." "I think he did Israel a bad disservice. This is a work of art that can be interpreted in many, many ways."
Mrs. Feiler told Expressen, a Swedish newspaper, that the work was intended " to show how incomprehensible it is that a mother of two - who is a lawyer no less - can do such a thing."
The director of the museum, Kristian Berg, said "You can have your own view of what this piece of art is all about, but it is never, never allowed to use violence and it is never allowed to try to silence the artist. " Berg also said he did not consider the exhibit to be offensive.
The museum says it will not remove the creative work of art. It was re-installed and put on display again on Saturday.
What was Israel's Prime Minister's response to the hooligan-styled incident ?
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon praised Israel's ambassador to Sweden.
"I called the Israeli ambassador... and thanked him for his stand against the growing wave of anti-Semitism. I told him the government stands behind him," Ariel Sharon said.
Read here article by Laura King in LA Times, "Art-Loving Israelis Don't Condemn Envoy's Vandalism"
Read here AP report, "Israel's support for ambassador reflects growing rift between Israel and Europe"
Following this disgraceful display by an Israeli diplomat, the Swedish landlord is kicking out Israel's Embassy in Stockholm from the premises. This was relayed to the ambassador himself that the Israeli presence in the building poses a threat to others in the building.
Zvi Marzel should be recalled back and replaced. He acted no better than a hooligan and a vandal.
He cannot represent the good side of Israel. He is a disgrace.
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