Ambassador breaks a work of art and receives the praise of Sharon

JERUSALEM – “A stand against the wave of anti-Semitism in the world”. With these words, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon publicly praised the Israeli ambassador to Sweden, Zvi Mazel: two days ago the diplomat, during the inauguration of an exhibition, had destroyed a work inspired by a young suicide bomber.

“I phoned the ambassador and thanked him for his position,” said Sharon, who dedicated the opening statement of his ministerial cabinet’s weekly meeting to the story. “I told him – he added – that the government supports him”.

The initiative of the Israeli prime minister does not seem destined to bring back the diplomatic frictions following the accident. The Swedish Foreign Ministry, after the incident, has in fact called for Mazel next week, “to ask for clarifications” regarding the gesture.

The author of the installation, Dror Feiler, an Israeli transplanted to Sweden, called Mazel “an intellectual dwarf”, stating, however, that he was personally “against suicide bombers”: “I think it’s a horrible thing – said the artist – and that he does not serve the cause of the Palestinians “.

January 18 2004