No center stage for Arava
Israel's cultural expansion fails to reach southern Arava region: Even though residents farther away than any town, ministry decides not to subsidize shows in periphery
They live at the farthest most reaches of Israel's borders, most of them are in the farming industry, yet Arava residents will not be receiving any subsidization for performances or cultural activities this year.
The Culture Ministry has put together several criteria that need to be met by periphery towns in order to receive subsidization for cultural performances, but the Arava has been left out. The reason? The residents fail to meet the socio-economic criteria determined by the ministry.
Yet according to the Central Arava Council, the criteria are irrational. For example, they noted that one of the parameters is the number of vehicles each family has in their possession – yet the residents have no other way of getting around.
"No one seems to take the fact that we have no public transportation whatsoever within the council's vast lands," explained the council's treasurer Roee Patrick. "This isn't central Israel or even Beersheba where there are buses or taxis.
"Moreover, the main occupation of residents is agriculture and the residents have off road vehicles not luxury cars and jeeps."
At the beginning of the year the Culture Ministry launched a tender for the operation of the "Culture Israel" program. The program's purpose is to promote annual cultural programs, mainly in the periphery areas. The program was a meteoric success in its first year. The tender declared criteria according to which towns receive funding – in addition to geographic distance.
Yet the Arava region is also the most remote region.
"Someone there is making decisions in a very strange way," the council said. "We aren't the periphery? Without cultural budget subsidization the council's budget is set to have a deficit of NIS 100,000 ($26,900).
The ministry said in response: "As part of the ministry's policies is to encourage cultural consumption in the social and geographic periphery a tender for distributing culture in the periphery was published last year and it clearly stated that as of 2012 subsidization will only be given to towns in region one through seven of the geographical periphery.
"This in order to give priority to low income towns over towns which the Interior Ministry has determined are more economically established."
