FEBRUARY 2004

niall mccormick

As an artist I would like to declare that I was delighted with the Israeli ambassador's reaction last week in Sweden. I was thrilled with Sharon's response and the Jewish outrage. Art is there to provoke. It isn't there to please; nor is it there to support the common perception of what is right and what is wrong. Art is the most effective means of generating confrontation between different perspectives. In fact, if ever there was any doubt regarding the artistic value of the Feilers' installation, Ambassador Mazel's emotional reaction should have dispelled it: this is a piece of art of immense importance.  It is a piece of art about the art of peace - terms that are lacking from Zionist discourse.

The installation 'Snow White and Madness of Truth' consists of a pool of blood-coloured water on which a boat carrying the photograph of the suicide bomber Hahadi Jaradat floats. As far as I know, there is no indication that the red pool refers in particular to either Palestinian or Jewish blood. Presumably a person with poetic and artistic tendencies might even go as far as to suggest that the work has something to tell us about the situation in Iraq or Afghanistan or any other conflict. Mazel, however, interpreted the installation as anti-Semitic propaganda. For Zionists, blood is always their own blood, the blood of 'innocent Jewish victims'. Given the fact that in the second intifada Palestinian casualties have far outnumbered Israeli ones, we should ask ourselves why the ambassador concluded that the red pool symbolises some sort of mockery of Jewish blood. How did an official representative of an oppressive state come to adopt the bizarre self-image of an innocent victim?


It appears as if we confront here a form of severe blindness which reached a new peak with Mazel's act of vandalism. To start with, a pool of blood is not an image that would flatter the Palestinians. Palestinian people are not proud of the suicidal doctrine. It isn't a question of pride. At war against a super power, this is their only way to resist the never ending occupation. It is hard to believe that the Feilers, who openly support the Palestinian people, would use a symbolic pool of 'Jewish blood' to glorify the Palestinian resistance. Moreover, it is unlikely that Stockholm's Historical Museum would exhibit a work of art which praised killing and bloodthirstiness.

Hence, we must assume that Mazel's reaction resulted from a serious misunderstanding. When it comes to modern art, misunderstanding is not uncommon. But this misunderstanding was more revealing than people have been ready to admit. If we make the assumption that Mazel understood the pool to glorify 'Palestinian terrorism' we must then ask how can one regard a gruesome image as a glorifying symbol? We must remember that Mazel wasn't alone: both his barbarian act and bizarre interpretation were supported by Sharon and the entire Israeli media.

An examination of the role of blood in Hebraic culture of recent times may throw some light on the ambassador's actions. May I start with Ze'ev Jabotinsky (1880-1940), the right-wing Zionist leader and the ideological mentor of the Likud party. According to Jabotinsky the Jewish nation would be rebuilt

BBC WORLD SERVICE

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3408511.stm

The ambassador threw a spotlight at the exhibit

Israel's ambassador to Sweden has been questioned about attacking an artwork showing a Palestinian suicide bomber.

The envoy, Zvi Mazel, is unrepentant, calling the work a "call to genocide" but the Swedish Government says his actions are "unacceptable".

Meanwhile the artistic director of the museum, which is keeping the work on display, has reportedly been attacked.

Artist Dror Feiler, who is also said to have been threatened, said the envoy's actions made reconciliation harder.

He told the BBC World Service that his work was "absolutely not" a glorification of suicide bombers as had been claimed and criticised Mr Mazelfor a "stupid act".

"[My wife] came running to tell me... the ambassador was destroying our installation," the Israeli-born artist told the World Today programme.

"When I got there, I could see he had disconnected some of the lights."

Mr Feiler said he tried to persuade the ambassador to read the accompanying text which explained how innocent people had been killed in the attack by the bomber whose photograph he had used, but had been rebuffed.

Anti-genocide

The artwork, Snow White and the Madness of Truth, is included in the "Making Differences" exhibition accompanying an upcoming international anti-genocide conference hosted by the Swedish Government.

It consists of a boat carrying a photograph of female suicide bomber Hanadi Jaradat, floating in a pool of red liquid. The exhibit is accompanied by the JS Bach cantata My Heart Is Swimming In Blood.

Jaradat, a 29-year-old trainee lawyer, killed at least 21 people in a Haifa restaurant in October, one of the bloodiest of the suicide bombings by Palestinian militants.

Ambassador Mazel was summoned to the Swedish foreign office on Monday to account for his actions, which led to him being thrown out of the museum.

But he said he did not apologise, explaining that he "acted on behalf of my feelings and couldn't have reacted in any other way", quoted by the Associated Press news agency.

Earlier, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon praised the ambassador's actions, saying that anti-Semitism was such a problem "it would have been forbidden not to have acted on the spot".

Mr Mazel said he was surprised that the museum was continuing to exhibit the work.

E-mailed threats

Danish radio reported that two of the museum's top staff as well as the artist had received threats.

It said the artistic director, Thomas Nordanstand, alone had received 400 e-mails about the installation, most of them abusive and one containing a death threat.

Mr Nordanstand was also shoved down the museum's steps as he smoked a cigarette outside the building on Sunday but managed to grab a rail to break his fall, the radio said.

Sweden's Ambassador to Israel, Robert Rydberg, said there had been "a misinterpretation of a piece of art which may very well be in bad taste, very bad taste, but which is not a justification of suicide bombers".

In a separate development, Mr Mazel confirmed on Monday that Israel would be vacating the building that houses its embassy in Stockholm after 50 years, Israeli radio reported.

He said the building's owners thought Israel's presence was a security risk.

(If this ambassador can not control himself when he saw this piece of art, whatever it means to the artist, how do you think that Palestinian could control themselves when they see their killer every day, Palestinian been discriminated against and evacuated from their homeland with no justification for more than 55 years and been asked to be non violent! and this ambassador of the occupier and the representative of the killers could not control himself in front of a piece art)From International News

ZIONISTS ARE NOW SEARCHING EUROPE'S ART EXHIBITIONS FOR "ANTI-SEMITISM" AND PLAYING BINARY POLITICS!

Amsterdam is now enduring the demands of Moshe Kathar...sorry, Katzav to remove a "horrifying" exhibition which includes video shots of street protests against the Wall inside the West Bank,Palestine...."an attempt to attribute to Israel's leaders acts which contravene humanitarian values is a distortion and offensive."
As the Guardian headlines this news: Israel anger at Frank exhibit... Zionists with the two pronged hammer are prising nails out of an imaginary coffin and seeking the "Anti-Semite" of the past. Wielding the text and considering why the public uses both words and drawings("cartoons" - get it?!)on paper to highlight Protest, we have to acknowledge that since the 1950's artists have actually been the enemies of Art. There was a political reason for this, and if Israelis now wish Art banned they must surely endure being compared also to Hitler, who banned George Grosz and his friends in Berlin from warning the public about fascism and observing the truth. Artists were seduced by gallery owners in certain famous cities by money, and failed not only the credentials of their calling but obediently produced fashionable wall furniture and "interesting" objects. However we(the artists)now, having the political "facts" and the lies, and can now differentiate murder, on a large scale, from political and military responses to the ambitions of invasion by an enemy,and we are forced to take the course of our true vocation or quit. The two events above recorded also record that the binary game a lot of poets indulge in ("this is the poem and the explanation of it is...") is not yet exhausted, the public are asked to THINK by crossing a space to a written notice of explanation. Here is the golden goose and... this is why the golden egg was laid . Oof! Oof! as they used gibe in Yiddish.jbraddell,editor.