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"operation cast lead",

A kinetic sculpture that spins on its stand. On the 27th of December 2008 Israel invaded the Gaza strip under the code name "Operation Cast Lead". On Sunday January 11th 2009 a young Jewish man was arrested in London after singing at the Chief Rabbi of Britain, Jonathan Sacks, during his speech at an End Hamas Terror (pro-Israel) rally. Perched on the edge of a Trafalgar Square fountain, Dovid Von Neumann accused the Rabbi of being unrepresentative of the Jewish community in his claims that British Jews supported Israel"s current military action. He then sang the well known child"s Chanukah song "Sevivon sov sov sov" (Spinning-top, spin spin spin). The ongoing Israeli bombing of Gaza began during the festival of Chanukah when Jewish children around the world receive the traditional gift of a four sided spinning-top (sevivon in Hebrew, driedel in Yiddish). Today these are mostly made from plastic, but once upon a time they were cast in lead - hence Operation Cast Lead. Dovid explains: 'I wished to highlight the insidiousness of how the current Israeli invasion into Gaza was named after a child"s toy made from a highly toxic material - lead - and how Palestinian children have been at the mercy of such randomly falling deathly devices. It's as if Israel had the lead sevivon in mind as a metaphorical present to Palestinian children.' Dovid was held for a number of hours by Metropolitan Police until the demonstration was over, then released without charge. Israel withdrew on the 21st of January 2009, by then over 1300 Palastinians were killed including 412 children, thousands were left homeless and the economy in tatters.

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