When Art Attacks (Or Is Attacked)

The Swedish prime minister’s office has been deluged with thousands of e-mails protesting a Stockholm art exhibition which includes an installation piece the e-mailers view as anti-Semitic. The work, which features a photo of a Palestinian suicide bomber floating in a sea of blood, was vandalized by the Israeli ambassador to Sweden last week, and ever since, Israeli organizations around the world have been blasting the Swedish government for allowing the exhibition to proceed. The latest group to join the fray is the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish human rights organization which has been urging its supporters to send the protest e-mails.