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Photo: Oren Aharoni
Culture Minister Miri Regev
Photo: Oren Aharoni

Attorney General confirms 'cultural loyalty' bill

Avichai Mandelblit confirmed Culture Minister Miri Regev's controversial bill that would deny state funding to artists and cultural institutions who denigrate the state flag or state symbols, incite to racism, violence or terrorism.

Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit confirmed Wednesday Culture Minister Miri Regev’s controversial “cultural loyalty” bill.

 

 

Regev said in response: "I am proud and happy to announce that a cultural institution of culture which undermines the country will not enjoy its support. For the first time, the Ministry of Culture, which is responsible for funding cultural institutions, has now been given the authority to ensure that cultural institutions are not above the law."

 

The significance of Mandelblit’s decision is that today a memorandum of the bill will be distributed, and within 21 days the bill will be placed before the Ministerial Committee for Legislative Affairs. If it is approved there then it will be approved, in a brief period of time, by the Knesset when it returns from its break.

 

Culture Minister Miri Regev at Habima theater (Photo: Motti Kimchi)
Culture Minister Miri Regev at Habima theater (Photo: Motti Kimchi)

 

In January Regev began lobbying for a bill under the title “cultural loyalty”. The bill seeks to deny state funding to artists and cultural institutions who denigrate the state flag or state symbols; incite to racism, violence or terrorism; support armed struggle and terrorism against Israel; mark Independence Day as a day of mourning; or deny Israel's existence as a Jewish and democratic state.

 

Regev added that she “thanks the Ministry of Justice for allowing me to realize my policy of the hand that feeds is the hand that withholds. It is a great achievement for democracy that the government will have the freedom to fund, the freedom to choose what the state funds, in accordance with its laws, its values and policies."

 

Regev is also trying to pass a new criterion that would allow her to fine a cultural institution that refuses to appear everywhere in Israel - including in the West Bank - to the amount of hundreds of thousands of shekels.

 

Artists sharply criticized the law

Many artists expressed outrage at the bill and strongly criticized Regev.The Israel Prize laureate poet Meir Wieseltier was the most explicit saying: "I support this bill because it brings us closer to the rise of fascism and the exposure of its true colors.”

 

Regev was also booed, two days after the bill was first announced, when she took the stage at HaBima Theater in Tel Aviv at the premiere of the musical "Evita". "I won't stand for the state allowing activity that undermines Israel's existence as a Jewish and democratic state," Regev told the artists in the audience.

 


פרסום ראשון: 02.24.16, 15:30
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