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The Burden of Free Speech

18 June 2015

In the last few days we have witnessed a series of disturbing moves by Israel’s new Culture Minister Miri Regev (you may remember her from an anti-immigrant rally in Tel Aviv a few years ago, during which she called Sudanese refugees “a cancer”) and the new Education Minister Naftali Bennett aimed at chilling Israeli citizens’ freedom of thought, action, and creative expression.

Many, although not all, of these nasty moves have been aimed at Arab-Israelis.

Last week, Minister Regev threatened to oppose, and pull institutional funding for, the Elmina Theater in Jaffa, a Jewish-Arab children’s theater that works to foster coexistence through art. Elmina’s sin? The theater’s founder, revered Israeli actor Norman Issa, recently said he would not participate in the performance of a play over the Green Line.

Then, in a meeting over budgeting for cultural programming with top theater directors and artists, Regev announced that she had full control over funding, declaring “we [the Likud] got 30 mandates and you got only 20. We know the left claims culture for themselves but they are confused about who the people actually chose [to lead them]”. Notwithstanding the fact that 30 seats represents only about 25% of the voting population of the country – hardly an overwhelming popular mandate – Minister Regev seems to fundamentally misunderstand something about her role: she is now the Culture Minister of all Israelis, not just the ones who voted for her party, and using her powerful role to punish those with whom she disagrees only pushes Israel further away from its democratic moorings and further away from being the open, vibrant liberal society we so cherish.

The good news is, the Minister’s comments provoked a political storm. Over 1,500 Israeli artists signed a petition accusing her of involvement in “anti-democratic moves instigated by governmental organizations.” One of Israel’s most prominent and beloved authors, David Grossman, spoke out, warning that:

“The danger is that if such a process continues and if our isolation in the world increases – Israel will become nothing more than a militant, fundamentalist and inward-looking sect on the margins of history… The [culture] minister’s highest interest needs to be contact with reality, and [to allow] criticism to be as deep and wide and varied as possible.”

“Sometimes we need to also include what makes us hurt. The principle of absolute freedom to express one’s opinion is such a strong element in the life of society, and we are in a constant process of its erosion and even abhorring it. We are pursuing a narrow, literal ‘justice’ that is more than anything self-righteousness. In such a place, as [Israeli poet] Yehuda Amichai said, no flowers or culture will grow.”

Constraints on freedom of expression and artistic freedom, no less than attacks on civil rights organizations and human rights defenders, are evidence of the erosion of the very fiber of liberal democracy. This is a canary in the coal mine moment, and we must pay attention. Nothing less than the soul of the Israel we love so deeply is at stake.

Comments

  1. Thank you for sharing the Grossman quote. As always, razor-sharp intelligence and truth-telling. Israel needs New Israel Fund now more than ever!

  2. Thank you for this piece. Very informative not to mention very well-written.

  3. As usual the context is missing. Shallowness has always been a trait of the pseudo-liberal circles, and this article proves just that. In most countries, there isn’t such a thing as a ministry of culture. Culture is funded by people. People who pay for it because they want to be exposed to it. In Israel, unlike the majority of the world, there is a minster that is assigned to support culture (especially financially). Why should the state of Israel, and more specifically tax payers of the state of Israel, support financially people who create shows that “humanize” Palestinian terrorists who tortured and killed Israeli soldiers ? Why should the state of Israel and its tax payers support a person who is not willing to perform in front of other citizens of the state of Israel ? This questions are not here in this article. No one even bothers to ask them! No one said that the theater in Jaffa will not operate. It will just operate from funds that it will generate for itself – just like in the rest of the world. Either from tickets to shows or from donations – Just like the rest of the world, and not from Israeli’s tax money.

  4. Sadly, you are not aware of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting or National Public Radio which operate, in part, with tax money and without interference from the U.S. government and which are sometimes critical of U.S. policies. And you also must be unaware of the BBC which reports news, regardless of U.K. policy, and operates with public funding. If Israel wants to claim to be democratic, it needs to allow freedom of speech and thought without political interference.

  5. The tax payers of Israel should not fund people who act to destroy them and their country. whether it is through the usage of a gun or whether it is through the usage of a theater show “humanizing” a savage killer. The democracy of Israel gives the freedom for those people to “spit into the well” from which they drink continuously, without being impacted or sanctioned against. But, as an Israeli, I would not want a single penny of my money to support them or their theater. When it comes to their freedom of speech vs. my freedom to live, I prefer my life! If you don’t understand that, then you’re not a democrat, you’re simply a suicidal imbecile.

  6. I’m on your side on the Grossman quote. I also believe that there will always be guys who adhere to the principle stated years ago by Howard Mumford Jones, “it is easier to suppress criticism than it is to meet it.”

  7. Guy, the only “imbecile” here is you! Funny, you should call ALL Palestinians “savage killers”, but if somebody said something about those disgusting, racist, ahem, “Settlers”, you would be having a titty-attack!
    Oh, and by the way, the, ah, “Settlers” (if you could call them that) are not true Israelis simply because they live OUTSIDE Israel. The West Bank is NOT part of the MODERN State of Israel, and it NEVER was.

  8. Did you see me call all Palestinians “savage killers” ? I referred specifically to the one who killed Moshe Tamam (the soldier that was brutally tortured and killed by the guy that the Arabic theater in Haifa is now portraying in their act). I suggest as a tip from me to you, to pick up reading as a hobby. Work on it for a little while, and see if you can improve your reading interpretation abilities. It will serve you well. When you are done, and reach the reading ability of my four year old daughter, please feel free to reply and discuss with me the status of settlers and whether or not they are Israeli.

  9. Hate to sound like an armchair QB, but this is another example of why the U.S. model of mixed funding sources for the arts is a more effective way to promote free speech in the arts. Dependence upon any single source of funding will always lead to conflicts like this.

  10. As a South African who lived through apartheid, I implore you please, please don’t go there…..

  11. In a country without a written constitution and a first amendment, rightist parties attempt to gain power by exploiting the democratic system of open elections and then start to chisel away the freedoms of that people, and the first freedom they usually attack is the freedom to think and express one’s thoughts. In Israel, the withdrawal of government support for the arts is symptomatic of this process. Both Regev and Bennett believe that their selection to govern ministries has given them implied powers that should not exist, and have not been permitted to exist. It is up to the voters of Israel to oppose a rightwing government, particularly when that government is support by a majority of one MK’s vote.

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