Culture minister in secret tape: Attorney general is 'trash'
Miri Regev heard disparaging Yehuda Weinstein in leaked tape following his decision to intervene and prevent her from freezing funds to cultural institutions.
Culture and Sports Minister Miri Regev referred to Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein as "trash" in a secretly recorded conversation aired on Israel's Channel 10 news on Wednesday.
Regev's remarks followed Weinstein's decision not to permit her to withhold budgets from cultural institutions.
"They've given us the runaround, those s**** over there," Regev was heard saying. "'Weinstein stops Regev's intervention.' He isn't stopping anything. What trash."
Regev said following the revelation of the recording that she had apologized to Weinstein. "We are all human and we all say harsh things in moments of anger, and that's allowed," she said. "I'm not proud of it, but it happens. If indeed those things were said, they were said in a moment of anger and do not reflect my feelings towards the attorney general, whom I appreciate, respect and admire."
The recorded conversation seemed to be related to the saga in June when Regev announced she would freeze funding for the al-Midan Theater, whose play about a Palestinian prisoner who murdered an IDF soldier angered many. Later in the summer, Weinstein decided to intervene.
Regev said at the time, "With all due respect to the attorney general, he knows he cannot interfere with my judgment regarding the policy for allocating budgets."
Channel 10 also alleged that the Eitan Cohen, the head of the Ministry of Culture's municipal headquarters, had appointed a number of Likud activists and their associates to positions overseen by the ministry. In most cases, these positions were on public councils that were unpaid but provided some influence and prestige.
The law does not forbid appointments of people with political affiliations to public positions, but such appointments are supposed to be approved by legal counsel or meet the condition of a tender.
State Comptroller Yosef Shapiro announced Thursday that he would investigate the appointments.
