Sharon defends his vandalising ambassador

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon praised his ambassador to Sweden for vandalising a Stockholm art exhibit that allegedly glorifies Palestinian suicide bombers, saying the “entire government stands behind him.”

A security camera captured ambassador Zvi Mazel throwing a mounted spotlight at the exhibit in Stockholm’s Museum of National Antiquities.

Titled Snow White and the Madness of Truth, the exhibit consisted of a small ship carrying a picture of Islamic Jihad bomber Hanadi Jaradat sailing in a rectangular pool filled with red-coloured water.

Jaradat killed herself and 21 bystanders in an October suicide bombing in Haifa.

Sharon expressed unreserved support for the ambassador’s action.

“I called our ambassador in Sweden Zvi Mazel last night and thanked him for his strength in dealing with increasing anti-Semitism, and told him that the entire government stands behind him,” he told a cabinet meeting.

Dror Feiler, the Israeli-born artist who created Snow White and the Madness of Truth, said it was supposed to call attention to how weak, lonely people can be capable of horrible things.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry said it was summoning the Swedish ambassador in Israel to protest the display of Feiler’s piece.

Mazel was also being summoned to the Foreign Ministry in Stockholm to explain his action.