Zvi Mazel
Encyclopedia
Zvi Mazel is an Israel
i diplomat. He was the Israeli ambassador to Sweden
from 2002 to 2004, after serving as ambassador in Egypt
from 1996 to 2001 and, later, Romania
. He is now a fellow of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs
.
(The Parisian Institute for Political Studies). There he met his wife, Michelle, a political scientist and writer. He graduated in 1963, later becoming a career diplomat making his first service in Antanarivo, Madagascar
. He also served from 1980 in Cairo
, Egypt
, during the thaw period that ended with the 1982 Lebanon War
, returning in 1996 as an ambassador. He also held the post as director of Eastern European division and head of the Egyptian and North African department at the Foreign Ministry back in Israel.
"probably is an anti-semite." He has also been quoted as saying that Swedish foreign minister Anna Lindh
's criticism of Israel's alleged human rights violations could not be tolerated. Mazel also called former foreign minister
Sten Andersson
and Sweden's UN ambassador Pierre Schori
"professional anti-Israelis."
At the same time Mazel embraced personalities seen as controversial in Sweden as "Israel-friendly". Most nooted was when Mazel 2003 appered on a well known picture with Mr. Helge Fossmo
, at that time only known as leader of an ultra-conservative religious group, later imprisoned as the person behind the most spectacular murder case in Swedens modern history (Knutby murder).
In January 2004, he vandalized the art installation
Snow White and The Madness of Truth
by Israeli-Swedish artist Dror Feiler
and his wife Gunilla Sköld Feiler. The installation took advantage of the reflecting pool
at the courtyard of Historiska Museet
, that was highlighted and filled with red liquid signifying blood. The work further consisted of plaques with poetry on the surrounding walls and music by J.S. Bach
. Well-lit on the surface of a basin: a styrofoam boat, displaying a portrait of the Palestinian
suicide bomber Hanadi Jaradat
on one side and the word "Snövit" ("Snow White" in Swedish) written on the backside. After pushing some lightstands into the pool, causing a short-circuit and disabling the light, ambassador Mazel told Feiler that: "This is not a work of art. This is an expression of hatred for the Israeli people. This has glorified suicide bombers". Further he said to the press that the piece constituted a "complete legitimization of genocide, the murder of innocent people, innocent civilians, under the guise of culture". Feiler rejected charges that their intention was to glorify suicide bombers and accused Mazel of "practicing censorship".
Mazel stated that "Sweden is among the most severely anti-Semitic places" with "daily agitations in the media to kill Jews." Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon
later thanked Mazel "for his stand against the growing wave of anti-Semitism" in Sweden. Zvi Mazel retired from the foreign service in April 2004 at age 65.
In August 2009 and in response to the Swedish government's refusal to reprimand the tabloid Aftonbladet
for publishing allegations that Israel harvested organs from killed Palestinians
, Zvi Mazel made several statements about the press in Sweden. He said that that there is no freedom of press in Sweden (Reporters Without Borders
, in its 2009 press freedom index rankings
showed that Sweden shared the top position with four other countries.) Mazel also said that the Social Democrats control the news with about 80% of the newspapers are connected to the Social Democrat movement, including the "four national papers". The newspaper Sydsvenska Dagbladet commented that Mazel perhaps was alluding to the national papers Dagens Nyheter
, Svenska Dagbladet
, Aftonbladet
and Expressen
, and noted that of these four, Aftonbladet was the only one with a possible Social Democrat connection, as the trade union has a 9% share in the newspaper. According to Helle Klein
, Zvi Mazel's ideas about Sweden may be from people like Helge Fossmo
and other Christian extremists.
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
i diplomat. He was the Israeli ambassador to Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
from 2002 to 2004, after serving as ambassador in Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
from 1996 to 2001 and, later, Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
. He is now a fellow of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs
Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs
The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs is a public policy think tank devoted to research and analysis of critical issues facing the Middle East. The center is located in Jerusalem, Israel...
.
Education and work experience
After initial studies in Israel, Mazel attended Institut d'Études Politiques de ParisInstitut d'Études Politiques de Paris
The Institut d'études politiques de Paris , simply referred to as Sciences Po , is a public research and higher education institution in Paris, France, specialised in the social sciences. It has the status of grand établissement, which allows its admissions process to be highly selective...
(The Parisian Institute for Political Studies). There he met his wife, Michelle, a political scientist and writer. He graduated in 1963, later becoming a career diplomat making his first service in Antanarivo, Madagascar
Madagascar
The Republic of Madagascar is an island country located in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa...
. He also served from 1980 in Cairo
Cairo
Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...
, Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
, during the thaw period that ended with the 1982 Lebanon War
1982 Lebanon War
The 1982 Lebanon War , , called Operation Peace for Galilee by Israel, and later known in Israel as the Lebanon War and First Lebanon War, began on 6 June 1982, when the Israel Defense Forces invaded southern Lebanon...
, returning in 1996 as an ambassador. He also held the post as director of Eastern European division and head of the Egyptian and North African department at the Foreign Ministry back in Israel.
Stand on Sweden
While serving as an ambassador, Mazel became a controversial figure in Sweden. Once, in reaction to a call to hightlight that products from Israeli settlements sometimes had been labeled to fit into the EU-Isarel tax-free trade agreement, Mazel stated that the Swedish Archbishop K. G. HammarK. G. Hammar
thumb|K. G. HammarKarl Gustav Hilding Hammar , commonly referred to as K. G. Hammar, is a Swedish clergyman. He was Archbishop of Uppsala, head of the Church of Sweden, from 1997 to 2006...
"probably is an anti-semite." He has also been quoted as saying that Swedish foreign minister Anna Lindh
Anna Lindh
Ylva Anna Maria Lindh was a Swedish Social Democratic politician, Chairman of the Social Democratic Youth League 1984-1990, Member of Parliament 1982-1985 and 1998-2003...
's criticism of Israel's alleged human rights violations could not be tolerated. Mazel also called former foreign minister
Foreign minister
A Minister of Foreign Affairs, or foreign minister, is a cabinet minister who helps form the foreign policy of a sovereign state. The foreign minister is often regarded as the most senior ministerial position below that of the head of government . It is often granted to the deputy prime minister in...
Sten Andersson
Sten Andersson
* Not to be confused with Sten Christer Andersson , who was a long-time member of the centre-right Moderate Party and subsequently a member of the far-right Sweden Democrats ....
and Sweden's UN ambassador Pierre Schori
Pierre Schori
Jean - Pierre Olov Schori is a Swedish diplomat of Swiss heritage. For many years he was international secretary in the Swedish Socialdemocratic Party and a close assistant to the Swedish prime minister Olof Palme...
"professional anti-Israelis."
At the same time Mazel embraced personalities seen as controversial in Sweden as "Israel-friendly". Most nooted was when Mazel 2003 appered on a well known picture with Mr. Helge Fossmo
Helge Fossmo
Helge Arnold Fossmo , a pentecostal pastor sentenced to life imprisonment for solicitation of the Knutby murder in Sweden in 2004.-Life before Knutby:...
, at that time only known as leader of an ultra-conservative religious group, later imprisoned as the person behind the most spectacular murder case in Swedens modern history (Knutby murder).
In January 2004, he vandalized the art installation
Installation art
Installation art describes an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior interventions are often called Land art; however, the boundaries between...
Snow White and The Madness of Truth
Snow White and The Madness of Truth
Snow White and The Madness of Truth was an item of installation art by Swedish, Israeli-born composer and musician Dror Feiler, and his Swedish wife, artist Gunilla Sköld-Feiler...
by Israeli-Swedish artist Dror Feiler
Dror Feiler
Dror Elimelech Feiler is a Swedish-Israeli musician, artist and leftist activist. He has been living in Stockholm, Sweden since 1973. He is married to the artist Gunilla Sköld-Feiler...
and his wife Gunilla Sköld Feiler. The installation took advantage of the reflecting pool
Reflecting pool
A reflecting pool or reflection pool is a water feature found in gardens, parks, and at memorial sites. It usually consists of a shallow pool of water, undisturbed by fountain jets, for a calm reflective...
at the courtyard of Historiska Museet
Swedish Museum of National Antiquities
Swedish Museum of National Antiquities is a museum located in Stockholm, Sweden that covers Swedish cultural history and art from the Stone Age to the 16th century...
, that was highlighted and filled with red liquid signifying blood. The work further consisted of plaques with poetry on the surrounding walls and music by J.S. Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
. Well-lit on the surface of a basin: a styrofoam boat, displaying a portrait of the Palestinian
Palestinian people
The Palestinian people, also referred to as Palestinians or Palestinian Arabs , are an Arabic-speaking people with origins in Palestine. Despite various wars and exoduses, roughly one third of the world's Palestinian population continues to reside in the area encompassing the West Bank, the Gaza...
suicide bomber Hanadi Jaradat
Hanadi Jaradat
Hanadi Tayseer Abdul Malek Jaradat , a Palestinian suicide bomber from Jenin, blew herself up on Saturday, October 4, 2003 in an attack on Maxim's restaurant in the northern Israeli city of Haifa. Twenty-one people were killed and 51 injured. Among the dead were four Israeli children and three...
on one side and the word "Snövit" ("Snow White" in Swedish) written on the backside. After pushing some lightstands into the pool, causing a short-circuit and disabling the light, ambassador Mazel told Feiler that: "This is not a work of art. This is an expression of hatred for the Israeli people. This has glorified suicide bombers". Further he said to the press that the piece constituted a "complete legitimization of genocide, the murder of innocent people, innocent civilians, under the guise of culture". Feiler rejected charges that their intention was to glorify suicide bombers and accused Mazel of "practicing censorship".
Mazel stated that "Sweden is among the most severely anti-Semitic places" with "daily agitations in the media to kill Jews." Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon
Ariel Sharon
Ariel Sharon is an Israeli statesman and retired general, who served as Israel’s 11th Prime Minister. He has been in a permanent vegetative state since suffering a stroke on 4 January 2006....
later thanked Mazel "for his stand against the growing wave of anti-Semitism" in Sweden. Zvi Mazel retired from the foreign service in April 2004 at age 65.
In August 2009 and in response to the Swedish government's refusal to reprimand the tabloid Aftonbladet
Aftonbladet
Aftonbladet is a Swedish tabloid founded by Lars Johan Hierta in 1830 during the modernization of Sweden. It is one of the larger daily newspapers in the Nordic countries. Aftonbladet is owned by the Swedish Trade Union Confederation and Norwegian media group Schibsted, and its editorial page...
for publishing allegations that Israel harvested organs from killed Palestinians
2009 Aftonbladet Israel controversy
The Aftonbladet-Israel controversy refers to the controversy that followed the publication of a 17 August 2009 article in the Swedish tabloid Aftonbladet alleging that Israeli troops harvested organs from Palestinians that died in their custody. The article sparked a fierce debate in Sweden and...
, Zvi Mazel made several statements about the press in Sweden. He said that that there is no freedom of press in Sweden (Reporters Without Borders
Reporters Without Borders
Reporters Without Borders is a France-based international non-governmental organization that advocates freedom of the press. It was founded in 1985, by Robert Ménard, Rony Brauman and the journalist Jean-Claude Guillebaud. Jean-François Julliard has served as Secretary General since 2008...
, in its 2009 press freedom index rankings
Press Freedom Index
The Press Freedom Index is an annual ranking of countries compiled and published by Reporters Without Borders based upon the organization's assessment of their press freedom records. Small countries, such as Andorra, are excluded from this report...
showed that Sweden shared the top position with four other countries.) Mazel also said that the Social Democrats control the news with about 80% of the newspapers are connected to the Social Democrat movement, including the "four national papers". The newspaper Sydsvenska Dagbladet commented that Mazel perhaps was alluding to the national papers Dagens Nyheter
Dagens Nyheter
is a daily newspaper in Sweden. It has the largest circulation of Swedish morning newspapers, followed by Göteborgs-Posten and Svenska Dagbladet, and is the only morning newspaper that is distributed to subscribers across the whole country. In 2009 DN had a circulation of 316,000, reaching 881...
, Svenska Dagbladet
Svenska Dagbladet
Svenska Dagbladet is a daily newspaper in Sweden. The first issue appeared on 18 December 1884. Svenska Dagbladet is published in Stockholm and provides coverage of national and international news as well as local coverage of the Greater Stockholm region...
, Aftonbladet
Aftonbladet
Aftonbladet is a Swedish tabloid founded by Lars Johan Hierta in 1830 during the modernization of Sweden. It is one of the larger daily newspapers in the Nordic countries. Aftonbladet is owned by the Swedish Trade Union Confederation and Norwegian media group Schibsted, and its editorial page...
and Expressen
Expressen
Expressen is one of two nationwide evening tabloid newspapers in Sweden, the other being Aftonbladet. Expressen was founded in 1944; its symbol is a wasp and slogans "it stings" or "Expressen to your rescue", always on the reader's side....
, and noted that of these four, Aftonbladet was the only one with a possible Social Democrat connection, as the trade union has a 9% share in the newspaper. According to Helle Klein
Helle Klein
Helle Louise Klein is a Swedish journalist and political commentator.Helle Klein was born in Enskede in southern Stockholm. She is the granddaughter of the physicist Oskar Klein and the great granddaughter of the rabbi Gottlieb Klein. Helle Klein served as political editor-in-chief of the...
, Zvi Mazel's ideas about Sweden may be from people like Helge Fossmo
Helge Fossmo
Helge Arnold Fossmo , a pentecostal pastor sentenced to life imprisonment for solicitation of the Knutby murder in Sweden in 2004.-Life before Knutby:...
and other Christian extremists.
External links
- How Egypt Molded Modern Radical Islam, Zvi Mazel