DPA - Can an art exhibit improve ties between Israelis and Iranians?

Curator Yossi Lemel hopes so, which is why he has put together a display of art from Iran - the first of its kind in Israel - which he says will help smash prejudices and build a bridge between the two enemy states.

The exhibition, titled Sign from Iran, opened in Israel Thursday, with some 60 posters by 27 of Iran's "greatest" contemporary graphic artists on display in the Museum of Islamic Art in Jerusalem.

The poster art combines traditional calligraphy and modern design, synthesizing Eastern and Western culture. But some of the posters carry poignant political messages.

That's half the point. The two countries had good ties before the 1979 Islamic Revolution, but have since grown into arch enemies, with Israelis viewing Iran's nuclear program as an existential threat, a fear fueled by Iranian ayatollahs openly calling for Israel's destruction.

Lemel, himself an Israeli poster artist, said he was particularly drawn to a poster by Iranian artist Mehedi Saedi, "a calligrapher, virtuoso ... and I call him a magician."

Instead of a dove as a sign of peace, it depicts a black crow - a threatening creature in a colour often seen as a bad omen - holding an olive branch

"Ladies and gentlemen, let me present to you the new symbol of peace," says the poster.

"It's a bad omen. Ironically. It's a black omen," Lemel told DPA on Thursday.

The exhibition allows visitors to "get to know a very deep and creative culture," said Lemel, and makes them "relate first of all to people, to human beings, creating a news space for communication that is not stigmatic."

The joint effort by Lemel and Marta Sylvestrova, curator of the Moravian Gallery, Brno, Czech Republic, runs until November 19.

In some ways, the display even provides a counterpoint to art shows in Iran with works intentionally questioning whether the Holocaust had ever happened, a move seemingly designed to enrage Israel, which has a large population descended from people who escaped Nazi Germany's attempt to wipe out Europe's Jews.

The display in Iran opened five days ago.

Massoud Shojai Tabatabai, the organizer of the exhibit at the Sureh culture hall in Tehran, on Saturday said the event did not seek to deny the massacre of millions of Jews by Nazi Germany during World War II.

But Israeli and other Western officials charge that some of the creations question whether the Holocaust ever happened, contain classic anti-Semitic elements and compare Israeli soldiers to Nazis.

That exhibit, organized by the Iranian House of Cartoon gallery and which runs May 15-30, displays 150 drawings by cartoonists from 50 countries.

"It's a rare coincidence that only emphasizes the fact, I think, that we must think differently and bridge this hostility in new ways," said Lemel, himself the son of Holocaust survivors, of the two exhibits taking place simultaneously.

"I always say that nothing happens by chance."