Zvi Mazel
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Zvi Mazel, (born 1939) was an Israeli diplomat. He was the Israeli ambassador to Sweden. He had previously served at the Israeli embassies in Antananarivo, Madagascar, Paris and Cairo. He was also the Israeli ambassador to both Romania and Egypt, before becoming ambassador to Sweden in 2002.
He made news a few times. Once, when he stated that the Swedish Archbishop KG Hammar "probably is an anti semite", and when he stated that Swedish foreign minister Anna Lindh's critique of Israel's human rights violations could not be tolerated. Internationally, he is probably best known for vandalizing the artwork Snow White and The Madness of Truth in January 2004. The artwork was part of the exhibition Making Differences. Israel Prime Minister Ariel Sharon later thanked Mazel and announced his support for Mazel's actions [1] (http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/01/18/israel.sweden/).
A few days after the attack Zvi Mazel again made an attack and claimed that "Sweden is one of the most severe Anti-Semitic places" and "There are daily agitations in Swedish media to kill Jews" [2] (http://www.svd.se/dynamiskt/inrikes/did_6779521.asp) something that came as a total surprise to most people, but after Aftonbladet found out about Zvi Mazel's connections with the odd Christian sect "Kristi brud" (Bride of Christ) [3] (http://nyhetsbrev.aftonbladet.se/vss/nyheter/story/0,2789,424284,00.html) Helle Klein wrote a column questioning where Zvi Mazel got his ideas about the situation for Jews in Sweden from [4] (http://nyhetsbrev.aftonbladet.se/vss/ledare/story/0,2789,424165,00.html). It may be that Zvi Mazel simply trusted the wrong source. Then again, it may be that he had an opportunity to experience things first hand in Sweden.
In a TV interview on February 22, 2004 Zvi Mazel called former foreign minister Sten Andersson and Sweden's UN ambassador Pierre Schori "professional anti-Israelis". [5] (http://www.aftonbladet.se/vss/nyheter/story/0,2789,437040,00.html)