Controversial artwork by local artist was based on his mother’s experience in the Holocaust.

By Paul Shindman, World Israel News

Medica, a private Tel Aviv health clinic that decorated its walls with works by local artists, was forced to take one down after complaints that the painting contained the Hebrew phrase “death to the Jews,” the Israeli website Buzznet reported Monday.

The offending phrase on the interesting watercolor by Tel Aviv artist Yaakov Mishori is decipherable when viewed upside down.

The painting, the artist explained, was based on the testimony of his mother, a German Jew, who on Kristallnacht saw the inscription “Death to the Jews” on the streets of the city where she grew up, Haaretz reported. Another work by Mishori includes the same phrase.

However, one person’s art is another person’s incitement, and several people complained, including journalist Shimon Riklin. He slammed Medica, saying they paid money “for a painting with a huge caption: Death to the Jews,” calling it “self-hatred and auto-anti-Semitism.”

Despite Riklin’s claim, the works of art at Medica are borrowed from a private collection, and the medical center removed the controversial painting following the complaints.

“The center displays works by dozens of artists on its walls. In light of the reactions and feelings that we received, it was decided to replace the work with another. We apologize if anyone’s feelings were hurt. This was not our intention,” the company said in a statement.

In a 2011 review of Mishori’s work that including the painting in question, the reviewer talked about “satirical watercolor.”

“The question is whether it refers to dark periods in which an abstract was identified with Jews and degenerate art as in Nazi Germany, or Mishori visually examines techniques of blurring. Both sides of the work look like a distorted abstract painting,” Haaretz wrote of the painting.

Right-wing activist Yoav Eliassy, known on social media as The Shadow, was not impressed with the explanations.

“If there was an artist whose family was killed in a terror attack and they would make the same picture with the caption ‘Death to the Arabs,’ would it also be legitimate and appropriate for you to display in a medical institution? Or anywhere?” Eliassy wrote.

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Channel 13 TV reported that Amir had been in touch from prison with political and media figures to gain publicity and support for the political party.

By World Israel News Staff

The fact that a political movement aiming to free Yigal Amir, the man convicted and imprisoned for assassinating Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995, ultimately did not register last week for the September 17 Knesset election has not prevented it from getting media coverage.

“It wasn’t immediately clear why the party, Nura Deliba, did not submit its list,” writes Times of Israel.

The registration deadline was August 1st.

Channel 13 TV reported that Amir had been in touch from prison with political and media figures to gain publicity and support for the political party.

Among those he reportedly contacted was rapper Yoav Eliasi, better known as “The Shadow,” known for controversy, strong language, and staunchly right-wing views.

However, Eliasi declined, saying that he did not agree with Amir’s views and indicating that he was concerned that perhaps the authorities were setting him up.

The phone call from the solitary confinement jail wing where Amir is held, says Channel 13, came about two weeks ago.

“I understand that you have a site that has hundreds of thousands of followers,” Amir reportedly said to The Shadow.

“In the Russian sector, a movement has been set up to free me,” the convicted assassin continued.

Amir said that the party’s hundreds of supporters ranged from pensioners to academics.

According to Amir, the objectives of the new party also include changing the “media map” in Israel, arguing that they are “all in the hands of the left.”

“I’ve never stammered before,” said The Shadow in the Channel 13 report, referring to his response to Amir. “This time I stammered.”

He explained that despite his sharp right-wing views, “in what world are he and I on the same side?  A person accused of murdering an Israeli prime minister. The Rabin murder brought us down to our knees and tore us apart… He and I will never be on the same political side.”

However, Amir’s wife, Larisa Trembovler, who was born in Russia, denied any connection to the party, says Channel 13.

“A group of people from the former Soviet Union approached me. It is their initiative. Yigal Amir is not involved in it,” said Trembovler.

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