Prime Minister Ariel Sharon Sunday praised the Israeli ambassador to Sweden for vandalizing a Stockholm art exhibit that allegedly glorifies Palestinian suicide bombers, saying the "entire government stands behind him."
A security camera Friday captured Israeli ambassador to Sweden 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-colored water. Jaradat killed herself and 21 bystanders in an Oct. 4 suicide bombing in Haifa, Israel.
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 Sunday.
"I think Ambassador Mazel behaved in an appropriate way," he added. "I think the phenomenon (of anti-Semitism) is so serious that it would have been forbidden not to have acted on the spot."
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 Sunday 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.