Tel Aviv residents queue for selfies with work condemned as ‘expression of hatred’, then accept invitation to knock it down

The nickname King Bibi for Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has long been in circulation. It refers to his reputed imperial tendencies, his political gifts and his taste for fine living.

Now the conceit has been given a new currency via the sudden – if brief – appearance of a large golden statue of Netanyahu in Tel Aviv’s most famous square, satirising the prime minister’s years in office and the allegations of scandal that have surrounded the management of his household.

Appearing unexpectedly overnight in Rabin Square, the statue, on a white plinth, attracted the attention of scores of residents who waited to take selfies. But Netanyahu’s ministers, rushing to denounce the guerrilla art installation, made clear they were not amused.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Sculptor Itay Zalait said he had put up the statue to test the limits of freedom of expression in Israel. Photograph: Jack Guez/AFP/Getty

Leading the charge against the work’s creator, sculptor Itay Zalait, was the culture minister, Miri Regev, a leading figure in the right’s culture war against Israeli artists deemed leftwing or too elite. She denounced the statue as an “expression of hatred towards Netanyahu”.

For their part, Tel Aviv municipal officials ordered Zalait to remove the statue and said they would haul it away and fine him if he refused.

The artist, who had said the installation depicted “the situation we find ourselves in”, complied, inviting Israelis to help “topple Netanyahu” from his plinth. It was a task which they dutifully carried out, with pictures later showing the statue on its side.

Zalait describes his approach on his website as using “humour and sarcasm to point out automatic, absurd and unaware aspects dealing with the freedom of choice”. A painter as well as sculptor, he had told Israeli media organisations that he planned “a subversive artistic political act which would garner much media attention”.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Taking a selfie with the statue earlier on Tuesday. Photograph: Baz Ratner/Reuters

Speaking on Army Radio about his installation, Zalait said: “In the social media, there have been tens of thousands of comments about ‘King Bibi’. I simply made it a reality and put it in its deserved place, the Kings of Israel Square.” The reference was to the plaza’s name before it was changed to honour Yitzhak Rabin, the Israeli prime minister assassinated by an ultra-nationalist during a peace rally there in 1995.

Morning commuters snapping selfies with the statue were divided over whether it should be seen as mockery of Netanyahu, now in his fourth term, or a tribute to him. One woman bowed down in jest in front of the statue, which Zaliet said took him three months to sculpt.

Yael Dayan, a former city councillor, told Haaretz the installation was a “big middle finger in all our faces. He is the king of Tel Aviv. It shows Israelis that Tel Aviv too is under Netanyahu’s regime.”

“The golden calf – that was my initial association,” another Tel Aviv resident told the paper. Another passerby, Nina Lobel, said the portrayal of Netanyahu was “horrendous” in that the artist had wanted “to show him as a dictator”.