Israel: pictures of St. Mary as terrorist removed

The Israeli journalists' union on Thursday took down a series of pictures that superimposed the faces of female Palestinian suicide bombers on Madonna-and-child paintings after the images sparked a public furor.

Yossi Bar-Mocha, the head of the National Federation of Israeli Journalists, said his organization removed the pictures from its Tel Aviv headquarters for fear they would offend people who lost relatives in militant attacks.

One of the artists, Galina Bleikh, said their intention was not to glorify or justify the bombers' actions. She and her partner, Lilia Chak, tried to address a subject that "pains the whole country" in the exhibit, titled ""Woman, Mother, Murderer: An Exhibit on Female Terror," she explained.

"How can a woman who comes into the world with the role of loving and giving life become a source of hatred and murder?" Bleikh added, speaking before the pictures were taken down.

Neither of the artists could immediately be reached afterward.

The seven canvases, part of a larger exhibition, splice the bombers' faces onto works by Botticelli, Raphael and other eminent artists. Bleikh told The Associated Press that the show's concept was sparked by a suicide attack near her Jerusalem home carried out by a female Continue reading the remaining 66% ...