A massive sculpture of Benjamin Netanyahu eating a giant iced cake, Moët champagne, and pink macaroons has upset the Israeli leader, who suggested that the Last Supper-inspired artwork was the equivalent of a death threat.
Appearing in Tel Aviv overnight, the life-size pop-up display was made in the wake of a series of protests calling for the 70-year-old prime minister to step down.
Netanyahu faces an ongoing corruption trial and charges of undemocratic seizure of power to remain in high office. To compound their problems, a surge in coronavirus infections has seen a 21% rise in unemployment, with public anger focused on the government’s failed response to the pandemic.
Displayed in Rabin Square, the focal point of the city’s protests, the installation depicts Netanyahu alone at a 10-meter-long table, surrounded by candles and a medieval fruit and cake feast.
While inspired by the 15th-century Leonardo da Vinci mural, the diffusion includes rosy champagne and cigars, a nod to corruption allegations. One of the three cases against him alleges that his family received luxury gifts from two wealthy businessmen. Netanyahu denies any wrongdoing.
On Wednesday, Israel’s oldest leader said the simulated picture of Jesus’ final meal before his murder was the equivalent of a death threat, implying that he was heading to the same destination.
“There is no place for incitement and threats of murder, explicit and implicit, against me and my family, including the shameful threat of crucifixion in Tel Aviv today,” he said on Twitter.
However, the artist, Itay Zalait, said that the fake banquet was meant to symbolize the Last Supper for democratic freedoms for Israelis.
“You have the Prime Minister of Israel sitting at the center of the table and grabbing and sucking all this delicious food for himself,” Zalait told the Associated Press. “Now this meal is practically over, and it is now in the dessert stage, which refers to the last few minutes of time that we can do something to save Israeli democracy.”
Zalait is recognized in the country for his life-size political art. In 2016, he created a golden statue of Netanyahu, mocking what he said was blind support for Israel’s leader.
Two years later, he erected a statue of Netanyahu’s ally and former culture minister Miri Regev, admiring himself in a full-length mirror. The artwork followed a bill she had promoted that would have cut public funds to cultural organizations accused of failing to show “loyalty” to the state.
Regev, who remains in the cabinet as transport minister, also criticized Zalait’s latest exhibition as incitement.
“Does anyone suggest that the future of the Prime Minister will be that of dinner at the Last Supper?” she wrote on Twitter. “It is only a matter of time until there is a display of the gallows and a rope.”
Associated Press contributed to this report.
