Shoe thrown at Israeli Ambassador in Sweden and hits dead on! A shoe was thrown at Israel ’s ambassador to Sweden, Mr. Benny Dagan, when he was giving a speech at Stockholm University on Thursday. It was followed by two books and a note pad, all hitting the severely embarrassed ambassador. The two protesters, a young woman and a young man, shouted “Murderers!” and “Intifada!” while pelting Dagan with the objects. They are currently under arrest, suspected of assault and public disturbance.
The lecture was organized by the Foreign policy association at Stockholm University . The ambassador was supposed to talk about the upcoming elections in Israel , but turned quickly to issues of Hamas and Iran and developed a lengthy defence for Israel ’s recent actions in the GazaStrip. Some 20 minutes into the lecture, a woman stood up in the audience, threw a red shoe at the ambassador and shouted “Murderers!” The shoe hit Dagan in his stomach. Another protester then joined in and hurled two books and a note pad. Dagan was dumbstruck and paralyzed, but returned to his lecture shortly after a few minutes – only to face shouts and other verbal protests from the audience. The meeting ended in chaos, while the two protestors were taken to custody. The boycott movement in Sweden has gained momentum during the last weeks, not the least since Veolia lost its Stockholm metro contract, worth some 3.5 billion euro a year, after a long campaign against the company’s notorious involvement in the Jerusalem tram project. The movement is now taking aim at the Davis Cup tennis match between Sweden and Israel scheduled in Malmö from the 6th to the 8th of March 2009. http://www.imemc. org/article/ 58788 Video: http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=ANclSnICGXY&eurl Muntadhar Al-Zeidi set a trend for the world to follow suit. Even the Europeans have come to understand the value and honour of the shoe thrown in the face of cowardly animals such as these. Showing the sole of your shoe has long been an insult in Arab culture To hit someone with that shoe – as Muntadar al-Zeidi (pictured) tried with President George W Bush – is seen as even worse. The shoe is considered dirty because it is on the ground and associated with the foot, the lowest part of the body. Shoes are often used to attack the American flag and to lash out at photographs of Mr Bush by those protesting against American foreign policy. As an insult to President George Bush Sr. after the first Gulf war, a mosaic of his face was laid on the floor of the Al-Rashid Hotel in Baghdad . Anyone who entered the lobby would have to walk over his face to get into the hotel. Compounding the shoe insult was Mr Zeidi’s likening of the US president to a dog. While the comparison is perhaps not polite in any culture, among Arabs, who traditionally consider dogs unclean, the words were an even even more stinging. Check out this below picture. It is taken from a CHRISTIAN site. Visit their site to see what they are saying. Get rid of Add-Ons in your email ID get yourn...@ymail.com. Sign up now! http://in.promos.yahoo.com/address
