Letters to Swedish Foreign Ministry and Amb. Mazel

[editor]

Dear friends,

We would like to thank all of you who heeded our call and wrote letters of protest to the Swedish Foreign Ministry and in support of Israel's ambassador to Sweden, Zvi Mazel, regarding his behavior in the Swedish "art exhibit" incident. Within 48 hours, we received letters from many dozens of individuals from different countries: Australia, Canada, Finland, France, Israel, Italy, Mexico, the Netherlands, Peru, U.K., U.S.A.

We have posted about fifty of the best letters here, and invite you to read and enjoy them.

All letters are also being forwarded to the Israeli Embassy in Stockholm for Ambassador Mazel.

Best wishes,

The MidEastTruth team

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Dear Sir, Madam,

I am a Pastor of a Christian congregation in Wales.

I was today made aware of the incident involving Mr Mazel (The Israeli Ambassador to Sweden) and an exhibit at Stockholm's Museum of National Antiquities. I understand that Mr Mazel damaged lighting to the exhibit.

I also understand that the exhibit concerned sympathised with Hanadi Jaradat the female suicide bomber who murdered 21 innocent Israeli's in "Maxim" restaurant Haifa on 4th October 2003. I understand that the exhibit was in the form of a photograph of Hanadi Jaradat which was displayed in a boat floating on red water. The exhibit was entitled " Snow White and the madness of truth"

I was in "Maxim" restaurant two days prior to that bombing and I later interviewed a number of survivors of that horrific incident whilst they were being treated in hospital. I have video footage of survivors who describe a baby being blown into pieces as she was hurled across the room into the face of an off duty Police officer. Descriptions detailing other terrible atrocities during that incident are also recorded.

I served as a British National Crime Squad Police Detective and have researched the motive of Hanadi Jaradat. Her motive was the revenge of her brother’s death and an absolute hate towards the Jewish people. She was not weak as she has been described by the creator of the exhibit, but a strong determined killer.

I find such an exhibit as was created by Dror Feiler an insult not only to the families of those murdered and the Israeli people but also to those of us who hold human life precious. To create such an exhibit not only attempts to justify such an act of horror towards innocent people but encourages this dreadful form of terrorism and makes Hanadi Jaradat a hero. No one can ever justify the murder of innocent people and no one should ever attempt to do so, or even be allowed to do so especially in a National Museum.

I feel that the actions of Zvi Mazel are far less serious than the creation of the exhibit and the actions of the Museum’s director in allowing such a thing to be shown at an event that is aimed at denouncing genocide rather than encouraging it.

I do hope that when Mr Mazel attends your call to explain himself tomorrow that you also call for an apology to be given to him for the insults to his Nation that have been made through this most deplorable of exhibits.

Yours

Rev. Michael Fryer
Mold, North Wales.

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I can only applaud the action of the Israeli ambassador, Zvi Mazel. The exhibit depicting a Terrorist Bomber, sailing on a sea of red blood of her victims, is not Art. It is propaganda celebrating death of others in the oft stated goal of eradicating Jews from the land of Israel. How could such an exhibit be shown at a conference on genocide? The request by the landlord of the Israeli Embassy for the Embassy to move demonstrates that Terror is a powerful weapon, when used by people without scruples. Sweden, like others in Europe, are afraid to take a stand. Threatening people with death and violence because of their religion, color, or political leanings has been condemned by the civilized nations of the world.
After serving in the US Army Air Force in WW II, I thought we were through with passivity in the face of aggression. "Never Again" would the world permit massacres or genocide. Perhaps killing Jews is not genocide in the world's opinion. Fortunately Ambassador Mazel action, perhaps not diplomatic, but a call to fight back at the Chamberlains of the world. "Give them what they want, and there will be peace". It didn't work before, and won't work now. Israel has begun to retaliate to the threats of the PLO, and Jews worldwide must retaliate to anti-semitic behavior, even when disguised as Art.

Julius Romanoff
Newtown, PA, U.S.A.

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The Swedish government has brought expectations from the Jews to a new level of degradation. The Nazis expected the Jews to cooperate in their own murders, pay the costs of their own transit to the death camps and dig their own graves. But even the Nazis did not expect the Jews to honor art that glorified their mass murder. Sweden, which cooperated fully in the abominations of the Nazis, notwithstanding their receipt of the Jews of Denmark alone, which they seem to have come to regret, now demands that the Jews honor art which glorifies mass murderer of Jews. Sweden is officially indignant with the Israeli ambassador for having attacked the work of art. I suggest that the Swedish government treat the ambassador's outburst of revulsion itself as artistic expression. Think of it as guerrilla theatre.

J.P. Golbert, Professor of Law
Advocate and Attorney
Jerusalem, Israel

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Sir,

Have you seen the so-called work of art damaged by the Israeli ambassador to Sweden? Have you been to the following website showing the text that goes with the installation? It is necessary to see it as a preliminary. Otherwise it is just theory.

(http://www.makingdifferences.com/site/calendar.php?lang=en&id=20).

I was myself very cautious regarding the ambassador reaction when I heard about the incident. Before seeing it, I thought as an axiom “art is freedom, nobody can interfere with a creation process”. Besides I was wondering “would a work of art be that harmful that it has to be destroyed?” as I was raised in France where the freedom of thinking and creating is usually considered as a sacred value and I also recall of the Nazis obsession with “degenerate art”.

“A work of art". Maybe we can question this word.

If you think it is, would you still think so would it be Ben Laden drifting on the blood of 3000 people instead of the Palestinian terrorist sailing on the blood of some Israelis? What if the installation was accompanied by a note explaining that Ben Laden had to do it because he wanted to punish Americans. Would you qualify it a work of art? Or would it just be a political statement?

What if it was Adolf Hitler and the blood of the one million Jewish children killed because of him? With a sweet poem mourning over the difficulties Hitler encountered in his life, especially with Jews, which eventually incited him to commit suicide?

Would it be acceptable as a work of art? Does the qualification depends on the quality of the given explanation or the number of deaths?

Would it really change the concept?

What if it was the murderer of Mrs. Lindh and her blood in the bath and a text explaining that she deserved it as she was chosen by the murderer as a private Holocaust? or because the murderer wanted to be famous and he deserved it (or any reason you may imagine). Would you still consider it a work of art? Would the change of the murdered person modify something to the concept or would it be the same?

What if it was your family (God forbid) that has been entirely murdered by someone (grand parents, parents and children like the Almog family or the Zer-Aviv family) and you were the only one remaining and in the National Museum of your own country there was an exhibit showing the murderer as a white dove, the blood of your family as a lake accompanied by a text explaining all the good reasons for which a "universal non-violent character" blew up your family? Would it be the same concept? Would it still be a work of art?

Not consider the above examples as art and at the same time consider the above installation a work of art means adopting the following point of view; the installation is a work of art which includes a political statement that I consider acceptable, as such I consider acceptable and understandable to blow up Israelis in a restaurant.

Is this art? or just art kidnapped by terrorism advocates?

What if a priest, like in Rwanda, starts asking the crowd to go out and kill people, would it still be religion because the speech takes place in a church? Is this art because it takes place in a museum?

We, as Europeans, have we completely lost our sense of values, integrity, morality that we cannot anymore protect them and distinguish them from perverted ones?

Géraldine Cario
Paris, France

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Your Excellency Ambassador Zvi Mazel,

Turning a mass murderer into Snow White is beyond my comprehension, and it should be beneath anyone's human decency.
Thank you for defending the memory of Israel's victims of terrorism.

Whipped by the anti-Israeli media, people in Scandinavia - or Europe for that matter - do not have the faintest idea what Israel and Israelis have to endure day in day out, year in year out, decade in decade out. Israel is treated in a distorted, appalling manner and Israelis as if they are not human beings - and all the while other Middle Eastern regimes, especially brutal dictatorships, are treated with silk gloves, not to mention appeasement poured on terrorists. Terrorists do not seek peace; they want war, they want to destroy a nation, even if on the way they bring disaster to Palestinians themselves, all under the approval, even support of the Palestinian Authority and neighboring states. When will Palestinian leaders and the Arab League be made to look in the mirror and start facing the consequences of their OWN policies that rob the region of peace?

In Israel - a tiny, tiny country c. 0,1 percent of the Middle East, willing to make huge sacrifices for peace while fighting for its existence - people do not know if they will see their loved ones again when they leave in the morning to go to work, to school, to kindergarten. And how many families have lost loved ones; all due to racist hatred. That makes my heart cry.

Peace does not come condoning, excusing or, worst, celebrating terrorism. Nor does it come distorting Israel's history and politics while ignoring the accountability of over 99 percent of the Middle East. Do Sweden and Europe prefer picking on the small one?
That may be the easy way, but it is not the right way.

Sincerely,

Inari
Finland

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Dear sir:

My name is Freddy Basurco, I am Peruvian and I am very interested in knowing when is your country going to stage an art exhibit containing pictures and the like portraying Shining Path members, the once most virulent and lethal terrorist group, at its most violent and depicting those artifacts as works of art.

This in relation to your portraying of a Palestinian suicide terrorist as such.

Yours,

F. Basurco
Tacna, Peru


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To the Israeli Embassy, Stockholm, Sweden,
 
Please convey the heartfelt gratitude of the victims of Palestinian terror in Netanya for the active intervention of Ambassador Mazel in the so-called 'art exhibition' in Sweden.
 
We are shocked that anyone in Sweden could rationally call this portrayal of a crime against humanity 'art'.
 
What would they think had Israel opened an exhibition portraying the murderers of the Swedish Prime Minister and Foreign Minister and called it 'art' ?
 
Is it possible that Israel is more sensitive to victims of brutal and bloody terrorism than the civilized Swedes?
 
Or is it that the Swedes are so indifferent to our continuing suffering that they can mount an exhibition where the focal point is a smiling suicide bomber with no thought to those who have lost loved ones, or who are permanently maimed, by her 'artwork'.
 
This exhibition must rank with that of the Palestinian artist who glorified another of their suicide bombers by exhibiting pieces of meat under the title 'Sbarro Pizza Bar' a year ago.
 
Barry Shaw
Chairman and Founder
Netanya Terror Victims Fund
Netanya
Israel

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I read the news today, with both disgust and dismay. Hearing that the Ambassador of Israel had to witness the glorification of a woman, who murdered over twenty innocent victims in Haifa, including Jews and Arabs is reprehensible. It would be tantamount to an exhibit glorifying the murderer of the Swedish politician. I know, if this was an exhibit that showed lynchings of Blacks, and Jesse Jackson tore it down, he would be hailed as a hero of the cause of the Blacks. However, instead of standing for the position of the Israeli Ambassador, and supporting his shock, at an exhibit that mocks the deaths of entire families, he was reprimanded. I find the lack of compassion on the part of the museum a statement that exemplifies the hidden dangers of hatred of Jews, Israel, and demeans the survivors of terror. This is a message, heard around the world. When a country like Sweden, who will be populated in the near future with a prominent Muslim population, you should be careful of the message you are sending out. The next exhibit could be the glorification of your murder. Not a pretty picture.

Allyson Rowen Taylor
Los Angeles, CA
U.S.A.

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Dear Sir/Madam
 
I have been following the incident regarding the vandalisation of the exhibit depicting the mass murderer of innocent families eating at a popular restaurant in Israel.
 
As one who is not only an art lover but also professionally involved in the arts, I find it reprehensible for this "art" work that glorifies a murderer,  to be given legitimacy in your country. True art seeks to find a common spirit amongst peoples, not to divide and incite racial hatred, which is the "art" of Der Stuermer and which you seem to find acceptable.
 
Imagine if someone depicted the smiling photo of Sweden's foreign minister, Anna Lindh's killer as "art".
Imagine how the bereaved families and victims of the mass murder in Israel must feel.
 
Art can be controversial, but also needs to be ethical and honest, not obscene, hiding behind a pseudo intellectual  "artistic freedom of expression."
 
Your country has failed in this respect and certainly damaged its reputation.
 
Yours failthfully
 
Ron Hutter
Australia

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Laila Freivalds
Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Dear Ms. Freivalds:

The right of free speech is, perhaps, the greatest litmus test of a true democracy. Using that right, however, to glorify criminal behavior creates a platform of sympathy rather than the appropriate condemnation. Certainly, democratic governments depend on citizens to uphold the law. Condoning the acts of those who break the law encourages others to do the same.

Historical Museum director Kristian Berg should be ashamed of himself for commissioning Gunilla Skold Feiler's "Snow White and the Madness of Truth" which memorializes suicide bomber Hanadi Jaradat. Jaradat murdered 21 people in Haifa last fall. Creating a display that juxtaposes her beauty with blood without commenting on the heinous and gruesome crime she committed is an appalling misuse of both creative license and freedom.

Israeli sensitivity to the impact of terror is a response to the reality of Israeli life. Terror attacks within Israel have left over 900 Israeli's dead. Over 70 percent of them were civilians. Showcasing 'Snow White' at an exhibition linked to this week's international anti-genocide conference is reprehensible and cruel.

It would seem to me that Israeli Ambassador Zvi Mazal requires an apology. Disconnecting the lights for the exhibit seems to be a small gesture given the magnitude of the problem. It would be most appropriate, if condemnations are to be issued, that they be directed at those committing or glorifying murder rather than those whom are offended by it.

Respectfully,
Helene Fragman Abramson
Princeton, New Jersey, USA


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Sirs,

I am angered and frankly astonished that Sweden's Museum of Antiquities would host an `art' exhibit honoring Hanadi Janadat, a murderer who killed 21 innocent people at the Maxim restaurant in Jerusalem, including a number of small children. Particularly galling is the fact that the exhibit this so-called art appeared in is linked to an international forum on genocide. Is shame and a sense of decency dead in your country?

Israel's ambassador to Sweden quite understandably lost his temper on seeing this atrocity displayed in this way, and especially at seeing this in an exhibit linked to a conference on genocide. For him to be chastised by your government and asked to explain his actions (as though an explanation would be necessary to anyone with an ounce of human feelings) is an outrage, as was the exhibit itself. And the fact that this `art' was prepared by someone of nominally Jewish background is no excuse. How would you react if Swedish children had been blown up by this monster and you saw `art' commemorating and celebrating the deed? This, in fact, is what Israelis have to live with each day of their lives. One of my correspondents who was in Jerusalem the day of the Maxim bombing told me that while the Israelis were literally scraping body parts off the street, they could hear the Palestinians in the adjacent P.A. ruled areas ululating, cheering, and firing guns in the air to celebrate. These are the people that you appear to support...people who take delight in the murder of innocent children.

I am, frankly, embarrassed that some of my fellow human beings in what is supposedly an enlightened western country would be so supportive of evil and so blind to basic human decency.

Robert Miller
U.S.A.


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There was a time, as I was growing up during WWII, that I thought of Sweden as a fair and open minded nation. My mindset continued in that vein for more than half a century. Your nation's behavior in recent years has destroyed that image completely. I am sorely distressed at your skewed vision of the world and your apparent embrace of Anti-Semitism.
Your exhibit of the installation titled "Snow White and the Madness of Truth"-- linked as it is to an inter-national conference on genocide -- is an outrageous attempt to justify the murder of two score innocents, including young children--not to mention the many others maimed and disfigured; a disingenuous misunderstanding of history; and an apparent expression of sympathy with murderers who see vengeance and self-destruction as a "solution" to issues that require cooperation and honest effort for resolution. For shame!
I do not approve of the emotional reaction of the Israeli ambassador. But I wholly understand it. I do not believe that damaging what is billed as a "work of art" is acceptable ambassadorial behavior. Neither do I believe that this propagandistic piece can fairly be called a "work of art." And I know to a certainty that it should not be set forth as such at a conference on genocide.
I did not begin to write this communication until I had read the words of the installation. Having done so, I feel sick at heart. Red does not look beautiful on white when red stands for the spilling of innocent blood, the bloody vengeance that ends innocent young lives. Red in this case looks disgusting. Heartbreaking. Wholly unsupportable by any rational nation. Certainly so by Sweden.
How easily you forget world history. When Israel was formed as a nation, it pleaded with its Arab neighbors to live with it fruitfully and peacefully. The response it received was a unified Arab vow to throw every last Israeli into the sea. War after war was waged against the struggling nation by a consortium of Arab nations. Israel fought bravely for its existence, all the while welcoming refugees from all over the world. The Arab nations, without exception, refused to embrace the so-called "Palestinians" within their borders. (There was no "Palestinian" nation: the people were under Jordanian hegemony.) Instead, they deliberately isolated and segregated the very populations they had encouraged to leave the area; keeping them in grinding poverty in order to instigate and reinforce anger and nourish hatred. That has not changed. The "Palestinians" are the victims of their Arab "friends", not of their Israeli "enemies."
Think well about how a Swedish representative might react to a state-sponsored showing of a similar so-called "work of art" if Swedish citizens were being blown up week-in and week-out by like-minded "suicide bombers". Outrage is not unreasonable in light of the pain engendered. At the least, the Swedish government ought to trade apologies with the Israeli government and remove the hateful "artwork" from the museum.

With sadness and disappointment,

Anonymous
Miami, Florida, U.S.A.


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Gentlemen: You have greatly offended the brave people of Israel by allowing such a sick, rotting, piece of garbage to be accepted as "ART" at a symposium allegedly dedicated to analysis and prevention of genocide!
Further, you have failed to recognize excellent performance art on the part of Ambassador Mazel in "modifying" the exhibit in a deeply meaningful manner!

Congratulations Ambassador Mazel! Well done!

John P. Cooke
Ridgefield, CT, U.S.A.


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Sir or Madam:

Your response to Ambassador Mazel's action is inappropriate.

It is as obscene for you to promote a so-called "art" display glorifying or justifying murder as it was for the painter to paint such a monstrosity. It glorifies not only murder, but also primitive child sacrifice that Arafat's followers have brought to this so-called enlightened century. Mazel's actions were understandable, and probably were actually relatively restrained.

Sweden is a great country, and her inhabitants wonderful people. But your government's self-righteous attitude is too often a bit much, to say the least.

With sincere restraint --

Yours truly,

Robert J. Goldish, MD
Duluth, Minnesota, U.S.A.


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It is my understanding that the Israeli government and your government were not going to show the Nazi Art made up by Kapos. Instead, you reneged and set up the Israeli Ambassador by inviting him to the sea of blood.

What stake does Sweden have in increasing the anti-Semitism in Europe?

I think the Ambassador's actions were a daring and effective performance art piece that captured beautifully the concept that the murder of Jews can no longer be treated as ethically neutral and philosophically tolerable. The particular choice of dousing the lights of public adoration of the thuggish "suicide bombers" in the symbolic pool of Jewish blood was a magnificent conceptual visual.

Bravo to him, and a shrug to those who don't have the sensitivity to recognize artistic brilliance and instead condemn it because they don't like the message.

Shame on you. Shame.

Elizabeth
San Luis Obispo, California, U.S.A.


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Dear Foreign Ministry ..Sweden

I guess you are fortunate that the landscape in Sweden is such, that no-one is bent upon placing explosives within the Swedish community to decidedly blow up innocent citizens...whatever issues within their background....in the name of bringing to the attention of others ....that wanton -actions... and killing of innocents is acceptable.

The incident at the function within the Art Museum is regrettable . I trust the emotions that precipitated this undertaking will bring to the conscience of others ,to realize that this act was representative of an deep emotional pained expression ....and nothing more . I would of done no less considering this provoked rubbish !

Much may explain. I trust you will accept that this is not usual behavior from Israeli Ambassador Zvi Mazel. And in defense of the Israeli Ambassador ...perhaps someone might have forewarned him....whereupon the Ambassador might have chosen ...not to attend the function in protest. Surely the Jewish- artist, in his misguided quest, paints a picture, that clouds and misrepresents the truth of the matter . And it's painfully obvious at his bris they may have taken off the wrong part. It invites 'an incident waiting to happen.'


Respectfully


Martin Lemish
Vancouver, British Columbia
Canada


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To Whom It May Concern:

Sweden, a country I never lived in, nor had the opportunity to visit, but I had such fine warm feelings for the country and its people. I can understand Sweden a little today, because while I was in my late teens and early twenties, I was always on the side of the underdog. It was the right thing to do at the time as I went by my young feelings of the heart, without giving much thought to reason and circumstance.

Today, Mr. Minister, I have matured somewhat and so should have Sweden matured. Mr. Minister, take a referendum to your people. Have hundreds of Swedes blown up by homicide bombers and thousands more injured, then please feel "liberal" enough to glorify the bomber in an art exposition. Mr. Minister, your people would not only rip out and ruin an art display, they would probably kill the government that allowed it to go on as well as the "artist" involved. There is no humane reason for homicide bombings of innocents. Land and ownership is opinion that may be solved with negotiations less the horrific terror. Human life is sacred.

Mr. Minister, you and your people have it all wrong. It is not you who should give the Israeli Ambassador to Sweden, Mr. Zvi Mazel a tongue lashing.. rather the civilized world should yell at you and yours! For shame! If art is so wonderful and full of expression, then where are the buyers of paintings of Hitler, Eichmann and Mussolini? Yes, you would have buyers.. neo nazis, that's who. and yes, you would have admirers of this horrific display your country put on.. Jew-haters, antisemites, that's who. Is that what you want your country to be known for? If you do not stop the problem, you are part of the problem.

Vardit Zafri
Toronto, Canada

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"Snow White and the Madness of Truth" represents a perversion of art and free speech. It is equivalent to desecrating the graves of the murdered Israelis and solemnizing obscene graffiti defacing them. It is not the Israeli ambassador who should be called to account, but those who chose this obscentiy for the exhibition.

Sincerely yours,

Martin C. Rosner, M.D
Mexico


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(A letter to the editor of The Jerusalem Post that was also sent to the Swedish Foreign Ministry)

Sir,

On Friday the Israeli Ambassador to Sweden wrecked an exhibit in the Stockholm Museum of National Antiquities depicting a Palestinian suicide bomber.

Do we really need to have diplomatic relations with such barbarians who portray the deliberate murder of innocents by suicide bombers as a form of art?

Sincerely,

Anonymous
Israel


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I could feel the ambassador's frustration at the exhibit!

My son and his family live outside Stockholm and repeatedly told me how biased toward the Palestinian cause the Swedes are. they also purport to be 'liberal' and 'opposed' to terrorism. however, every time I visited the country and saw the BBC or the international version of CNN, the news that was reported definitely was negative vis.a vis. Israel . In few stories were terrorists characterized as such and their victims revealed to be Israeli civilians. It is appalling that a seeming enlightened Nordic country is so lacking in fairness. is the country's dependency on oil the issue or is their growing Muslim population the cause?

Whatever the reasons, most European countries favor the Palestinian cause openly and especially, in the U.N.
And so it goes.

Barbara S. Dobbin
U.S.A.


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Good thing I was not present at a monstrosity in which the value of Jewish life is subordinated to those who make it their mission and career to murder Jews. To destroy the right of the Jewish nation to self defend against an implacable enemy. It reminds of the `art exhibits` in time of Hitler under the title `work of an extinct race` in the Nazi display of bravado of the killing machine directed against Jewish existence.

That an Israeli, Dror Feiler an Israeli who resides in Sweden, and Gunilla Skold Feiler, his Swedish wife are responsible for this `art` exhibit in Sweden which in effect carries forward Hitler’s mission to destroy the Jews is not only a disgrace but an indictment of an educational system within Israel itself in which Israel is demonized and those choosing its destruction deified by such a Jew responsible for this exhibit honoring homicide bombers, mass murderers of Jews.

Who speaks for the Jews murdered, the altered lives of the survivors of the atrocities perpetrated by murderous Arabs? When will the anger in Jewish breasts rise enough within Israel itself to quell the evil which has beset, which resides not only in our enemies but within those of our own? If life is about making correction for lives as lived in the past - how about the living of such lives as need correction now? How about the questioning engaged in by the students of Torah at Yeshivas such as existed in the centuries pre-holocaust Europe with its gain in sharpening Jewish minds because of a love for our people instead of the rebellion against our own right to exist in an identification with the murderers of Jews? Those Jews abetting such murdering in an alliance with Islamist religious mandate to destroy non-Moslems beginning with the Jewish nation?

Ambassador to Sweden, Zvi Mazel, we stand with you. If only your hand could wipe away not only the exhibit but the structure which supports and gives public respectability, validation and prominence to a fellow Jew whose sympathies are with the murderers of his own people.

Consciousness raising is all our jobs - swiping away evil and its support systems from the realm of public respectability is a duty, a mission toward preserving lives, our own.

You did right.

Anonymous
U.S.A.


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Dear Sir,

Israel's ambassador to Sweden,Zvi Mazel, reacted improperly. He should have stood there and laughed. Here is an exhibit depicting a woman labelled "Snow White" floating in a pool of blood.
In the Muslim/Arab culture the story book Snow White would not be acceptable. Remember, this is a woman who voluntarily moved in with seven men and set up house there. The concept of 'family honor' would not allow such a story to even appear, let alone actually happen or be exhibited. The person who designed this art show does not know Arab culture.
A woman who gives up her virginity to seven (short and disfigured) men would be killed by the men in her family. This has already happened in cases where only one man is involved. She would be allowed to lie in her own blood.
The Israel ambassador to Sweden could have said this during pauses in his laughing spell. Snow White is definitely not a positive character in Muslim/Arab culture.

Aharon Goldberg
Hatzor Haglilit
Israel


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I think that Mr. Mazel`s act have been dictated by a natural impulse of a decent man.
The Jews were blamed for being passive during the Holocaust. Now we need more courageous people like Mr. Mazel.

I expressed my opinion to the museum. I thing that every Jew has to do the same. It doesn't take much effort to right down couple of words -- much less then it takes the victim's families in Haifa to heal their pain.

Respectfully
David Shenker
U.S.A.


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Sir:
 
The Swedish Museum of National Antiquities has on display an installation titled Snow White and the Madness of Truth. It was commissioned by Stockholm International Forum. The head curator and Creative director is Thomas Nordanstad. All this information is on the website for the exhibition, Making a Difference. Nowhere  on the website does it say this is a work of art, it is merely described as an installation. Apparently even those in charge of this exhibit did not deem it art.
 
I would suggest that it should have been described as a propaganda installation, for that is what it is. Pure propaganda that strengthens the fanatical Islamic fundamentalists and Palestinian terrorists who teach their young generations to become homicide bombers. In the propaganda text that appears on the website the public is encouraged to have sympathy for the murderer, Hanadi Jaradat. She committed a crime against humanity and civilization when she blew up innocent victims, Israeli Jews, Druze and Arabs, at a restaurant in Haifa. And why should there be sympathy for her? Because the terrorist to whom she was engaged was killed in a violent encounter with Israeli security forces. Much space is devoted to how she grieved and her sorrow and then her proclamation to have revenge. As if this was justification for her heinous crime.
 
And what of her victims, the 19 savagely murdered by her, all innocent people? There is just an oblique reference to some of them towards the end of the text. Mentioned dispassionately, and only the families of some of the victims are mentioned. The dead are denied their humanity by keeping them nameless. The  slaughtered  innocents whose lives in this text are reduced to a statistic. Everyone of them had a name and an inalienable right to life: Bruria, 59; her son Bezalel, 30, and his wife Keren, 29, with their children Liran, 4, and Noya, 1 of the Zer-Aviv family from Kibbutz Yagur.Count them, five members of a family, three generations wiped out by Hanadi Jaradat's vengeance.Zvi Bahat, 35, of Haifa, Mark Biano, 29, of Haifa, and his wife Naomi, 25,  Hana Francis, 39, of Fassouta, chief waiter,Mutanus Karkabi, 31, of Haifa, the security guard, Sharbal Matar, 23, of Fassouta, waiter, Osama Najar, 28, of Haifa, cook,Nir Regev, 25, of Nahariya,Irena Sofrin, 38, of Kiryat Bialik, Lydia Zilberstein, 56, of Haifa who died of her wounds on Oct 9, George Matar, 59, of Haifa who died of his wounds on Oct 15.Seventeen people who died immediately, and two who suffered and died later. And what of the many wounded whose lives will never again be the same? Would Sweden have sympathy if the families of these innocent slaughtered people committed similar crimes against innocent Palestinian Arabs in revenge?
 
The public display of what the Israeli Ambassador called monstrous is an installation that justly deserved to be destroyed. Bravo that he pulled out the wires and threw a spotlight on the river of blood that was created and installed in the museum.
 
The Nazis also had their excuses for their slaughter of innocents and the attempted genocide of the Jews. Has Sweden considered displaying an installation intended to bring sympathy to the neo-Nazis of this generation so that they can avenge their murderous relatives? After all, many of them were killed in combat with the Allied forces and some were sentenced to death at the war crimes trials at Nurenberg. I doubt that even Sweden would consider this now. This exhibition is in conjunction with a forthcoming international anti-genocide conference to be held in Stockholm from January 26 to 28. The Palestinians openly declare that their intentions is to destroy the legitimate State of Israel and kill as many Jews as they can. Where is the display depicting the continuous genocidal terrorist homicide bombings and killings perpetrated against innocent Israelis? 
Not only are there no regrets or apologies extended to the people of Israel, the museum director, Kristian Berg,  accused Ambassador Zvi Mazel of trying  "to stop free speech and free artistic expression from being carried out in Sweden." And then with continued arrogance, after accusing Mazel of "destroying art," coldly told him, "If you don't like what you see, you can leave the premises." 
 
Once again it should be noted that nowhere on the website is this outrage called art, which it is not. And to destroy the kind of propaganda that glorifies terrorism and thus encourages more of it should be widely applauded.
 
During the week the Swedish museum director was angered by Ambassador Mazel's actions, another female homicidal terrorist killed more innocent people. Her husband encouraged her to this because she had committed adultery by him and thus she would be killed by her family and her name would be shameful. As a bomber, she would become a martyr. The encouragement of terrorism against Israel and Israelis contributes to each and every act of terrorism. As President Bush said, those who encourage terrorism are as guilty as the terrorists. It defies credibility that an installation that equates a terrorist bomber with the innocence of Snow White, was commissioned by Sweden for display in conjunction with Making a Difference,an international anti-genocide conference hosted in Stockholm.
 
Reva Sharon
Israel

****************


Dear Mrs. Laila Freivalds and Kristian Berg
 
Murder of Jews is no art!
 
I send you this email from Italy in support of the actions of Ambassador Mr. Zvi Mazel in your so called "Museum" of antique hate.
 
Please congratulate to him on my part.
 
Thank you
 
Andras Bereny
Italy


****************


Can anything depicting a Palestinian suicide bomber be termed a work of "art"? Is it an "art" to murder innocent civilians dining in a restaurant? The Swedish government should hang its head in shame rather than ask the Israeli ambassador for an explanation of his justified reaction.

Anonymous
U.S.A.


****************

The rise of Anti-Semitism in the name of Anti-Israel and the rise of Anti-Israel behavior throughout Europe is alarming. 

I am writing to you on the day commemorating the importance of the life of Martin Luther King in the United States, which is both my home and my birthplace.  I am proud to be a citizen of a country that does not allow displays, which would be hurtful to any group whether it be a racial, ethnic or religious.

However, Sweden has put a spotlight on itself in the recent past of condoning Anti-Semitic and Anti-Israeli behavior.  I visited Sweden at a time that it was not known for either Anti-Semitism and or Anti-Israel behavior, but that was in the past.  I would not care to visit there again until there is a respect for Jews.  The rise of this behavior is causing a great fear amongst many Jews throughout the world.

For my part, I know several Americans who have canceled trips to those European countries which condone Anti-Semitic behavior and Sweden is on that list.

Don't wait until your condoning this behavior gives rise to another Holocaust.

I cannot close this letter without recalling the fact that behind the Anti Jewish writings, I have read Anti-Christian writings too.  Hitler didn't stop with the Jews, and unless the behavior that your country is condoning is stopped, things bode grave for my future and for yours.

How could you expect Ambassador Mazel to walk calmly past "Snow White and the Madness of Truth"?

Barbara
New York, U.S.A.


****************

Israeli Ambassador Mazel should not have to explain his actions to the Foreign Ministry for his act of sanity. I understand it perfectly. Rather, the Foreign Ministry should explain to Ambassador Mazel and to Israel why they think this is art or even "free expression".

I hope the Foreign Ministry will make a public apology to Ambassador Mazel, to the Israeli people and to all Jews everywhere. Sweden could take the high road in this instance with an apology, but if the Historical Museum's directors did not have the judgment to know art from obscenity, they won't recognize a high road.

Maybe your office will tell the rest of us what you could have been thinking to display such a piece in a exhibition claimed to be an for an anti-genocide conference. If you need a definition of "genocide", ask the Israeli ambassador, or any Jew anywhere.

Gail W. Harris
Tulsa Oklahoma, U.S.A.


****************

Sir,

You are going to upbraid the Israeli Ambassador for defacing what you consider a work of art.

What you are in fact saying is that the killing of Jews must be praised.

No matter which way you spin words that is what you have done by giving any form of publicity whatsoever to killers.

We have never seen any where praise for suicide bombers of Muslims, of British peoples of Iraqi people, of Algerians, of Pakistanis of Indians but ,oh yes, we have seen more than one deification of suicide bombers whose victims are Jews.

Remember without Israel every Arab dictatorship will fall and you will be fighting the threat of shia Law in every democracy in the West.

You were neighbours of Germany 70 years ago and as the disease of pure hatred for Jews was unleashed so was the destruction of European Democracy.

Don’t let history repeat itself

Kalman Bookman
Glasgow, the U.K.


****************

Mrs. Laila Freivalds
Minister of Foreign Affairs,

Sweden continues to disappoint the heroic and righteous behavior of its neighbor Denmark, during WW II which was able to recognize the evil of the Nazi regime and oppose it.
You must ask yourselves..."what poison runs through the veins of the Swedes that allows them to see a river of blood, created by a murderess, as art ? Could it possibly be the poison of anti-Semitism? If that river of blood represented your children, and your wives and your mother's,...would you still consider it to artfully symbolize a bridging of differences? Or is it not offensive to a gathering which supports anti-genocidal practice because it is only Jewish blood,..and Jewish blood is cheap !
I am so proud of Israel and its Ambassador to Sweden, Mr Zvi Mazel. I fully support his behavior. It is one thing for Israel to be on the defensive where its military might is withheld due to its moral obligations and of having to answer to a higher authority. But, when a Jew is so offended by the blood of his people being displayed as art, it is time and it is right,...to take the offensive."" Throwing a spotlight on that judgment which is blinded by anti-Semitism, is the most appropriate way of dealing with over-civilizing such barbaric practices as suicide bombings to the extent of trying to raise them in the eyes of the public as...art !
"You can fool some of the people some of the time, but not all of the people all of the time".
Your jealousy and envy of a superior people, simply trying to survive...is showing. And how will history remember you? Can you compare the accomplishments of Sweden to those of Israel in areas of Medicine, Technology, Education, Humanitarian Achievements, even while it has been subject to your heroic figures blowing up their pizza parlors, family celebrations, school buses, college cafeterias, restaurants and buses? Can you imagine what contributions the Jewish people will be able to make, beyond all they have done already, once they no longer have to be distracted by the need to survive in a world blind with envy? Can you imagine? And, perhaps if you grant yourselves that vision, you will be that much closer to understanding the roots of your anti-Semitism and the incredulousness( by your perception only), of Ambassador Mazel’s "offensive" reaction to what you perceive as ART ?
Shame on you. Shame on you. Shame on you !

Rhoda Pochter
Outraged Citizen of the World

****************


Dear Foreign Ministry,
It is inappropriate to destroy a work of art being exhibited. However, "Snow White and the Madness of Truth" was in the poorest of taste, hardly art and more a piece of propaganda, in my estimation. Can you blame the Israeli Ambassador for losing his patience and destroying it. Why would a piece like that even be included in an exhibition?

Yours truly,

Harold Rosenbaum
Stamford, CT, U.S.A.

****************


I have just read about the art exhibition which is supposedly linked to an international conference on genocide: "Stockholm International Forum: Preventing Genocide." In light of that, how could a piece of 'art' which glorifies a suicide bomber - Hanadi Jaradat - responsible for the murder of twenty-one innocent people be included in such an exhibit?? Those murdered were:


- Five members of the Almog family from Haifa: Admiral (res.) Ze'ev Almog, 71, his wife Ruth, 70, their son Moshe, 43, and grandsons Tomer Almog, 9, and Assaf Staier, 11
- Five members of the Zer-Aviv family from Kibbutz Yagur: Bruria, 59; her son Bezalel, 30, and his wife Keren, 29, with their children Liran, 4, and Noya, 1
- Zvi Bahat, 35, of Haifa
- Mark Biano, 29, of Haifa, and his wife Naomi, 25
- Hana Francis, 39, of Fassouta, chief waiter
- Mutanus Karkabi, 31, of Haifa, the security guard
- Sharbal Matar, 23, of Fassouta, waiter
- Osama Najar, 28, of Haifa, cook
- Nir Regev, 25, of Nahariya
- Irena Sofrin, 38, of Kiryat Bialik
- Lydia Zilberstein, 56, of Haifa died of her wounds on Oct 9
- George Matar, 59, of Haifa died of his wounds on Oct 15

Zvi Mazel acted out of anger that such a work could be included. I probably would have done the same thing. If you are truly against acts of genocide, you will have it removed immediately!

Chaya Eitan
Israel

****************


To whom it may concern;
I am deeply saddened and outraged at the art work displayed. It shocks me that there are places and people that believe it is ok to condone the act of terror. This is not art but anti-Semitism. The problem lies not only in the artist perspective but also in the hands of the people that allowed this to be presented. The homicide bomber chose genocide. The terrorists all chose genocide. We will not stand by and let any memorializing of this horrific action take place. I honor Ambassador Mazel in his swift action to protest what can only be anti-Semitism. I wish for Sweden and all the world to standup and have the courage to act against any acts of anti-Semitism that are sweeping Europe, Sweden, and the world.
Shalom;

To the Swedish Foreign Ministry;
I wish to extend my wish that the Israeli Embassy not be relocated. It is imperative at this time for Sweden and the world to stand up against the threat and acts of terrorism and anti-Semitism.
I am deeply outraged that the art exhibit was allowed to be presented and that Ambassador's behavior criticized. Any person with integrity and moral behavior would stand up against this display of memorializing a terrorist. I stand with Ambassador Mazel and applaud his act against anti-Semitism.
All the world hopes to see the Israeli Embassy remaining in it's 50year house and an official apology to Ambassador Mazel and all the Jewish people for this anti-Semitic depiction prior to the convention.
Shalom;

Laura Hoffman
U.S.A.


****************

The behavior of western governing authorities that are accepting anything that recognize terrorism of any form are promoting the morale acceptance by the public and the world at large, is giving the go ahead to terrorists and telling them that we are not only accepting it as a norm but also applauding you and say to the western world: this is a tradition that should part of our lives.
Allowing disgusting ways and customs because we have too under the freedom of speech or of any freedom you desire.
The world was cleaner and we don't know where it will end and what will be next.

Vic Levy
U.S.A.


****************

This so called "art" is a shame to your entire country and decent people all over the world. This "artwork" glorifies and encourages the mass murder of innocent men, women, children and even babies and entire families. This "artwork" makes a mockery of the anti-genocide conference. Encouraging and glorify the targeting and mass murder of innocent Jewish civilians is not exactly anti-genocide, is it? This is the deliberate and disgusting glorification of genocide itself and you should be ashamed to have ever allowed such a thing. This is not free speech or artistic expression. This glorification of genocide against the Jews is something that will be seen by many as legitimizing the murder of innocent civilians as not only acceptable, but something to be admired. This encourages this type of terrorism. You have made yourselves accomplices to future such atrocities by those that WILL be encourage by your display of this "artwork".


The fact that one of the artists is Jewish is even less an acceptable excuse than it was when Jews helped to point out other Jews to the Nazis during the holocaust. At least in their case, they feared for their lives, but you have NO excuse for this despicable display and glorification of genocide and at an anti-genocide conference of all places!

I pray that you never have to experience the kind of heart wrenching pain that Mazel felt when he saw this celebration of the murder of his people that you have the audacity and lack of human compassion to call "artwork".

Snow White and The Madness of Truth actually describes the murder of these innocent men, women, children, babies and entire families as "beautiful".

You say your conference is on anti-genocide, but your exhibitions say the opposite. Shame on all of you.

Cherice
U.S.A.


****************

In one of the most appalling of demonstrations, the once proud and respect country of Sweden, which I have visited with pleasure on several occasions, has descended to the depths of abominable bad taste

Bad taste is not enough to describe the "art exhibit" which your countrymen are senseless and insensitive enough to describe as "art".

Why not show the victims of Chernobyl as a work of "art", or, better yet, apologize and rejoin what remains of humanity?

One thing for sure. As you reap, etc., etc.

We, in the United States of America, at one time not too long ago, looked upon Sweden as a great and free society. No longer. It is a degraded and stupid non-culture.

With one move you have defiled the memories of those great and creative human beings who once represented all that was great and good in Sweden.

My congratulations. It was not an easy thing to accomplish, but you and your kinsmen have done it.

Stephen Strimpell
New York, U.S.A.


****************

I endorse Ambassador Mazel's action completely. I couldn't have done it better. I saw and heard the reactions from both sides, pro or against the Ambassador's action.

I think that we are missing here a point, the "artist" himself. Everybody knows he is an ex Israeli (maybe an ex-Jew also) - Those people are and have been always, renegades, the worst kind of anti-Semites, and that can explain his behavior. People who aren't capable to continue to live here, sometimes, because of economic problems, but sometimes because of lack of sinking roots in their own country, have a need to justify themselves about their leaving of Israel. Their hate comes from self hating.

To call his work a work of art and humanism, is a joke of a very bad taste. The Nazis had also artists, and they painted well, they did some work, but we know that they paid a service to the Third Reich and their purposes were anti-Semitic - then the World stood by, even the future victims as well, at the beginning they thought that, all those are rubbish and are harmless and that will fade by itself. We know as a fact, that that was a part of the big picture, the total extermination of a people (the Jews). Today we know already the facts, so let's bee more intelligent and start to stop all the instigators of hate, because that is the main point here. Any political view starts with small acts - but we have to see the big picture and to where those "small" acts could bring the whole world, if we don't take this seriously enough.

The other main problem which I see in this case is the person or persons who authorized the exhibition of this specific "piece of art" - They are more responsible than the "artist", by accepting to put his work in the exhibition, they accepted the whole idea. In other words, they see the Palestinians as the sole victims (they are no terrorists,for them, they are freedom fighters) - they don't see Israeli victims as such, regardless that they were civilians, children, women, elder people, Arabs and Jews as well.

To make the long story short, we have to stop being "politically correct" when the terrorist acts are against lives of our people, it is not a game any more, it is a war. In a war you play different. We have to do our utmost to preserve the lives of our people. So if so an artist can do harm by his instigation and depicting Israel as the perpetrator and not as the victim, he is responsible also for the deaths of the future victims of this terrorists. Because that he is justifying in his way what has been done till now.

Arie Katzir
Israel


****************

Where art is sacrosanct and the aesthetic value takes precedence over moral values you have a world in which murder is not only acceptable but, if done with particular "style," glorified. It is not simply chance that "Thou shalt not make for yourself a graven image" is the second commandment. 

Your WWII record speaks for itself. One half century later, your sense of right and wrong is still distorted.

H.M. Loeb
New York, U.S.A.


****************

The sanctity of human life is one of the foundational beliefs in the Judeo-Christian tradition.'Thou Shalt Not Kill' was a commandment handed down to Moses from God.
Glorifying a suicide bomber who kills innocent people can in no way be explained or rationalized by any sort of excuse or argument. If this be 'Art' so be it, but it is a representation of EVIL.

J.Dashefsky
U.S.A.


****************

I am outraged that you would show artwork in Stockholm's museum of National Antiquities honoring a homicide bomber who is responsible for killing 21 innocent civilians including 4 young childern in Haifa, Israel. Well, the least you can do is be even-handed and show artwork honoring an Israeli suicide bomber.

If you look hard enough, perhaps you can find and honor Jews who have blown up Arab buses or Arab pizza parlors, malls, discotheques and restaurants. Can't find any, well keep trying. Perhaps you can find Jews who hijacked airplanes or targeted Ramadan feasts, or murdered Arab Olympic athletes. So, you can't find any Jewish suicide bombers who blew up Arabs to honor because there aren't any.

It's my understanding that the artwork is part of an exhibition linked to an international conference on genocide, "Stockholm International Forum: Preventing Genocide-Threats and Responsibilities" to be held January 26-28. So, you think that an exhibit glorifying the actions of a suicide bomber who murdered 21 people is appropriate. Shame on you, not only for allowing this "artwork"., but also for dishonoring your promise not to link the conference with the Middle East conflict.. All this can do is to encourage more Arab suicide bombers to blow up more Israeli babies, children, women and old people so that they too can receive the honor of artwork in a Swedish museum.

Selma Prager
U.S.A.

****************


To Whom It may Concern,

Shame on you for allowing an exhibit glorifying suicide terrorism as part of the "Stockholm International Forum: Preventing Genocide - Threats and Responsibilities."

There is a small move afoot in the "international community" to have the vile act of suicide bombing considered an act of genocide. Your allowing an art exhibit explaining away-if not condoning-if not excusing suicide terrorist murder to appear as part of an international conference against genocide shows that that movement is far too small.

I hope you will think carefully about how to deal with Ambassador Mazel's actions. He deserves to be congratulated.

Mayer Waxman
New York, U.S.A.


****************

To the Honourable Ambasador of Israel,

Mr. Mazel- may your name bring you all the gifts of its meaning (luck)- you deserve many thanks for the courage you displayed at the Museum. I saw the footage of what you did and sat my children down to watch it and learn what a hero is. The way you spoke to the "artist" and the way you defended Israel to the Museum authorities was inspirational. You are 100% accurate- this monstrosity should not be the kickoff for a conference on genocide. Kol Hakavod - good job -and keep it up. Despite the applause the "artist" got after his harangue, you are getting much more worldwide, I can assure you.

Esther Kandel
Los Angeles, CA, U.S.A.


****************

Dear Sir/Madam

Herewith i want to express my feelings of disgust about the displaying of a so called object of art in your museum in Stockholm.
I think that the Israeli ambassador was right in protesting against this form of art.
My prayers are with the victims of the suicide bomber that you mean to display as something special.
I hope sincerely that you will come to an understanding that you could never sympathize with somebody that deliberately killed so many innocent people.
I hope that my government will also take a stand against this deception of your mind.

I hope that you will take action to remove this object from your exhibition and hope you will use your energy to come to world peace and peace for Israel and its people.

Lennard Lamers,
The Netherlands


****************

Zvi Mazel is a hero! We salute a man brave enough to make a moral stand against a shocking, outrageous glorification of a murderer of 21 innocent people.

You should be ashamed of yourselves. What's next? An exhibit glorifying Hitler?

Benjy and Sheryl Danilowitz
Toronto, Canada

****************


Dear Mr. Ambassador,

As the Talmud teaches us, one can sieze his destiny in one moment, and you have done it. In extinguishing the spot lights, you have illuminated the European disease for all to see. The committed jew hater will not be influenced, but many others will see what has been perpetrated in Stockholm and will reflect and reconsider their animus. Your action was Churchillian necessary and crucially timely.

In the the world war Sweden was occupied without opposition and almost reached the depths of the French Nazi collaboration while her neighbor to the west, Norway conducted a bloody and heroic resistance, and Denmark to her south, in a act of National heroism, acted to save her Jews. Today, the government of Sweden condones this metaphor of the blood libel supporting the hate based credo of her old occupier. And you, Mr. Ambassador have exposed this to the world.

Schneur Genack
Lawrence, New York, U.S.A.


****************

To allow the "artwork" entitled "Snow White and the Madness of Truth," which glorifies the actions of homicide bomber Hanadi Jaradat to be a part of an international anti-genocide conference is an abomination. Jaradat and her ilk are the ones engaged in genocide. Would you be so liberal, crusading for the right of free expression, if the Maxim restaurant was located in Stockholm rather than Haifa? If the 21 men, women and children killed were Swedes, rather than Jews and the Arab owner of the restaurant? I highly doubt it.

Any exhibit that glorifies the murder of men, women and children, whether they be Israelis, Rwandans, Sudanese or Bosnians should not be given a venue in any civilized country. There is art and then there is propaganda. This is the latter.

Remember that it's only a matter of time before the radical Moslems will threaten you as well. Just ask the French.

Linda Krauss
Syracuse, New York
U.S.A.

****************


Letter for the Swedish Foreign Ministry:

Sweden represents a Nation of peace and sensibility, a bastion of good will. Please, do not corrupt that vision by supporting the representation of the killing of innocent people as acceptable in any form.

The actions of the Israeli Ambassador was appropriate as a statement that representing a homicidal, genocidal terrorist as other than a criminal is in itself a criminal against humanity.

Rich Levin
Rochester, New York
U.S.A.


****************

Dear Swedes
How can I as an American Jew do anything but hold your country in utter disdain and avoid all products manufactured in your country in the wake of your unadulterated antisemitism? Your poor taste in "art" is no excuse for your glorification of mass murderers!
I will be encouraging all my patients and friends and acquaintances to avoid anything Swedish as we have done with the French. This can be avoided by backing off the relocation of the Israeli embassy and by a public apology for elevating pure raw hatred to the status of art. I eagerly look forward to you doing the right thing or I pity the poor Saab and Volvo dealerships in America!

Sincerely,
Steven Lovell
California
U.S.A.


****************

Many of us are appalled not at the Israeli's behavior but at Sweden's attitude toward Jews. You pride yourselves in your "civility" and civilization but your attitudes toward Jews are truly low. How any civilization can have sympathy for murderers who kill innocents is beyond human explanation. Perhaps when Palestinians start blowing your people up you will come to reason.

Leslie Fuhrer
Los Angeles, U.S.A.


****************

Dear Ambassador Mazel,

Thank you for your actions concerning the ‘art exhibit’. It was the most diplomatic thing you could have done

Avril Gilmour
U.K.

****************


I find it so sad that you glorify the sea of blood of murdered people - Palestinian Arab and Jew alike - in this "work of art." *That,* misguided Swedes, is genocide. What is it about the genocidal murder of eighteen Jews and four Arabs that you don't understand as genocidal?

Anonymous
U.S.A.


****************

Göran Persson, Prime Minister of Sweden

I was horribly astonished to note that your government has sponsored an exhibition, in which is glorified a female Palestinian suicide/homicide bomber. On display at the Museum of National Antiquities in Stockholm. "Snow White and the Madness of Truth", it shows a boat sitting on a pool of blood-red water with a photograph above it of the deadly (now dead) woman, who is smling. The photograph is of Hanada Jaradat, who murdered 22 Israeli Jews and Arabs in the attack on the Haifa restaurant in Israel in October.

No matter how strongly one might disagree with what is happening in the Middle East, it is surely going beyond the bounds of freedom of speech to have such an exhibit on display, in which a mass murderer who has simultaneously committed suicide is glorified in this manner. And what is the message that is intended to be communicated to onlookers of the exhibit? That committing suicide while killing as many civilians as possible is a good thing for the cause. It is well documented that art and propaganda are inextricably intertwined. This is not the place for such an exhibit, which is offensive in the extreme.

I understand that your government gave assurances to the government of Israel that the conflict in the Middle East would not be included and so I would urge you to ensure that the exhibit is removed without further delay.

Deanna Levine
U.K.

****************


Your exhibit 'Snow White and the Madness of Truth' is tasteless, offensive and an insult to the victims in Israel (who number both Jews and Arabs) of this suicide bomber Hanadi Jaradat (who killed herself and 19 others in an attack in Haifa in October) and of all suicide bombers. In a civilised society, freedom of speech and freedom of expression are made subject to the limits of good taste and offence. Until now I had thought that Sweden was the epitome of a civilised society. But this exhibit unquestionably oversteps these limits.

Please ensure that it is removed today

Sincerely
Jonathan Hoffman
U.K.


****************

[Barry K.]

SULLIEDWhen I read that our nation’s death toll in Iraq has matched that of the first four years in the Vietnam conflict, I shuddered to recall those dangerous times. As my turn to risk life and limb in that conflagration grew near, I was required to read Red Badge of Courage for my collegiate English class. That short book provoked recurring nightmares; I scoured anti-war propaganda as if I were in a life-or-death debate. Most women on campus were strangely silent then; for generations, American men had gone to war. They were not clamoring for combat duty on front lines to defend Saigon. Only one woman persistently addressed the nearing horror of my involvement; daily, her urgings insisted that I not follow in my father’s footsteps. When America entered WWII, he did not hesitate to enlist. My mother’s pleading calls would wake me on dreary mornings; she did not know that the compelling text of the Red Badge was provoking profound questions in me about the legitimacy of my reasons for volunteering.

When one of my brightest high school classmates chose to escape service by immigrating to Sweden, I never knew whether his mother had funded his move. It was not difficult to imagine that televised images of planeloads of body bags with their often-mangled corpses had spurred her to make calls similar to my mother’s. I may never know.

What I have realized of late is that other factors may have been at work in my Mom’s psyche. Her generation of European Jews had been earmarked for extermination, the ultimate goal of a rampant anti-Semitism. Although she had had to confront vestiges of that terrifying sentiment in America, she had doggedly insisted on raising her children not to be similarly targeted. For the most part, none of the three of us were. That battle won, she wanted us to complete college rather than to take chances on surviving distant fields and their likelihood of brutal death.

I could not assure her that accepting my responsibility to serve my country was not suicidal. Indeed, our polemic continued for years. When I faced having to leave law school to go to war, I made my decision: I would teach at an American ghetto school in lieu of joining America’s war machine. Her stay-away-from Vietnam calls stopped.

As I fought to master the task of teaching many of my socially promoted junior high school kids, I noticed a dramatic increase in the telling images of the gory tragedy that proponents of the Vietnamese War could no longer suppress. Never will I forget the summary execution of a Vietnamese enemy by a bullet to the head fired at such close range that the photo of that event seemed to shake with the force of that shot.

Although that gruesome picture was prize-winning, it caused me to question both the outrage it provoked as well as the drama it so accurately depicted. As a collegian, I was asked to consider whether such stark photographs were considered to be expressions of the art of war or a photojournalist’s commentary on results of its deadly encounters. Where was that fine line drawn?

What came to my mind were gut-wrenching photos of emaciated Holocaust prisoners. How could I look at those heart-rending images as being artful? Such a painful consideration troubled me. How many famous versions of the unthinkable beheading of St. John the Baptist had I forced myself to examine for its compositional elements?
Was I to accept as art a priceless painting because it so graphically portrayed man’s inhumanity to man?

If that is the case, I have to wonder whether some would argue that the immaculately preserved Nazi concentration camp known as Dachau now stands as a piece d’ resistance, a three dimensional relic that deserves some recognition for its workmanlike integrity to the poignant theme of genocide. If that is the case, I have to ask myself why, some sixty years later, sights where sick suicide bombers have destroyed and murdered entire families are not left as is. As bloody stains dry and fade, as fragmented body parts rot and shrivel, is not there a living art apparent in such rank cameos of death?

If so, I would refuse to support any artistic institution that would cross over into that questionable realm. Offering homage to those demonic forces that demean mankind’s valiant existential struggle and its often-heroic failures is, in my opinion, unwarranted and insupportable. I now know that others may share my opposition.

One of them is likely to be Israel's ambassador to Sweden, Zvi Mazel. At the Museum of National Antiquities in Stockholm, as reported in today’s Online Jerusalem Post by Herb Keinon in an article entitled PM: Gov’t Supports Terror Exhibit Wrecking, a current display features
…"Snow White and the Madness of Truth," … a small ship carrying a picture of Islamic Jihad bomber Hanadi Jaradat sailing in a rectangular pool filled with blood-colored water.
That startling display is no sympathetic memorial to the 21 Israelis that the deranged bomber murdered at Maxim’s Restaurant. Instead, it is one of many pieces displayed in various museums during the 2004 Stockholm International Forum entitled Preventing Genocide. That is passes as art is as detestable as the ghoulish myth of Jewish blood libel is unforgivable. Neither touches on some revealed inner truth nor on a sane aspect of the human condition that is highlighted by either some degree of honest depiction or obvious distortion.

Those who nominate it as art defile the source of those spirit-filled sparks that manifest as creativity. It is no more to be considered art than would be lamp shades made of stretched human skin. It is as murderers’ graffiti, a defiling spew on the austere grounds of the Museum of National Antiquities.

Artists of merit and repute that allow their names to added to a list that includes those of the manufacturers of such obvious refuse only sully themselves by doing so.


B.Koplen 1/18/04
_________________
I have written hundreds of essays about life as a Jew in America. Many concern aspects of Jewish American allegiance to Israel. Most are provocative though family oriented, safe for my two children to read.

[Elisheba]

First of all, thank you for including my letter.

Secondly, for anyone who has gotten this far, I respectfully request you read the following as well:

http://mideasttruth.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=380