MIDDLE EAST: An exhibition representing Palestinian suicide bombers as the Virgin Mary is banned from opening

Record ID: 356100

  • Title: MIDDLE EAST: An exhibition representing Palestinian suicide bombers as the Virgin Mary is banned from opening
  • Date: 3rd September 2009
  • Summary: JERUSALEM (SEPTEMBER 3, 2009) (REUTERS) MEIR EIN-DOOR, CEO OF ALMAGOR, ROOF ORGANISATION FOR ISRAELI BEREAVED FAMILIES WHOSE RELATIVES WERE HURT IN PALESTINIAN ATTACKS, LOOKING AT POSTERS SHOWING ISRAELIS WHO WERE KILLED IN PALESTINIAN ATTACKS POSTER SHOWING WOMAN INJURED IN PALESTINIAN ATTACK, READING 'IT HAS TO STOP' (SOUNDBITE) (English) MEIR EIN-DOOR, CEO OF ALMAG
  • Embargoed: 18th September 2009 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Arts / Culture / Entertainment / Showbiz
  • Reuters ID: LVA8LWE5UU55AA0X7WSE87LBOT5
  • Story Text: An Israeli art exhibition showing female Palestinian suicide bombers as the Virgin Mary was partly removed from a Tel Aviv venue just hours before it was scheduled to officially open on Thursday (September 3), after it stirred anger among Israelis.
    The exhibition, presented in Tel Aviv's Journalists Association House, contains some eight paintings in the traditional Christian Catholic style of the Virgin Mary holding the baby Jesus, but has the faces of Palestinian female suicide bombers superimposed on the pictures.
    The presentation of suicide bombers in the context of the Christian images of sainthood angered many Israelis and appeared in Israeli newspapers, who demanded the exhibition be removed.
    "Terrible, Terrible. They make terrorists holy. It's really, I can not believe it. It gives them (a) push to do it again and again," Rivka, one of the few Israelis who visited the exhibition before it was officially opened told Reuters television.
    Placards placed by the art works held information about each of the suicide bombers, and the number of people killed when each bomber blew up.
    A small part of the exhibition, was however not taken down. Those artworks were made using earth from sites of the same suicide attacks, carrying explanatory placards, and did not evoke opposition from the public.
    "This exhibition is hurting the families who lost their loved ones. Taking terrorists who killed innocent people, and glorify them, which holy figures from the Christian world is serving the terrorists organisations that they want to show that terrorists are human beings. Not only that, it will bring other terrorists to do the same, if they are holy," Meir Ein-Door, CEO of ALMAGOR, the roof organisation for Israeli bereaved families whose relatives were hurt in Palestinian attacks, told Reuters in Jerusalem.
    But the exhibition upset not only Israeli attack victims' relatives -- it also caused outrage among the Christian community.
    "These pictures are provocative and offensive. They demonstrate carelessness not only towards an important religious symbol but towards the Christian institution. The virgin Mary has a high status in Christianity and she is revered by Christians for many reasons. In Islam, she is also held in a high regards, and is sanctified. In addition, these pictures undermine the Palestinian cause," the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem Theodosios Atallah Hanna said.
    As protests accumulated during the day, the Israeli Journalist Association, who own the venue in which the exhibition was set, decided to remove the art works which the public deemed offensive.
    "It was decided to take down the exhibition due to the offending of the feeling of the public in general, the feelings of the families of terror victims and of course and most importantly, the sentiments of Christianity," said Yossi Bar-Muha, Tel Aviv's Journalists Association CEO.
    Bar-Muha added that space for the exhibition was rented several months ago and paid for upfront, and that the organisation knew nothing about it's content until the day before the exhibition's opening.
    The female Israeli artists who created the paintings, Gellina Bleich and Liliya Chack, voiced surprise and disappointment after the cancellation.
    "This exhibition is dealing with "Ferror", that's how we call it, meaning "Female Terror", terror carried out by women. And we thought to check, in an artistic manner, how is it possible that a women, who came into this world to give love, and that gives birth, turned into a tool of hatred and murder. And this is what we wanted to communicate together with the audience and the crowd, it has nothing do with politics, we did not touch political issues," Chack told Reuters television in Tel Aviv.
    ENDS.
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