Is Israel's culture minister drunk with power?
Culture and Sports Minister Miri Regev is fond of reminding artists and cultural institutions that she has the power to determine their fate, including withholding funds if they fail to meet her standards of patriotism.
Culture and Sports Minister Miri Regev came well prepared to her first meeting with representatives of Israeli cultural institutions on June 11. Regev, on a collision course with “left-wing artists” since her first day on the job, arrived accompanied by legal advisers and driven by a clear goal — to show this group of leftists who's the new boss.
A day before, Regev had been at the eye of the storm after threatening to withhold funds from the Almina Theater, established by Arab actor Norman Issa with his Jewish wife, for as long as he continued to refuse for political reasons to appear in the Jordan Valley. “The pressure being applied on me borders on blackmail,” Issa wrote on his Facebook page. “Don’t make me go against my conscience in order to remove this threat.”
Regev was unmoved by Issa's plea and unperturbed by the resulting media storm. To the contrary, she took it as an opportunity to prove to her constituents that she won't be kowtowing to the “leftist dictatorship” of the Israeli arts. “I support freedom of speech,” she announced, “but the Culture Ministry does not have to channel state funding to groups and organizations that delegitimize the state and support boycotts.”
One can argue with Regev’s approach and agenda, but one cannot ignore that she has a legitimate point. The real problem is a different one and far more serious: She is drunk with power. Regev has not stopped crowing about being on the winning side of the March 17 elections, even as she promises to be “everyone’s” minister of culture.
