It has only been a few months since Miri Regev took office as minister of culture and sports, and it feels like Israelis have been teetering on the verge of a fierce public fight ever since. In one corner is the minister, who has spent years garnering a reputation for herself as an aggressive politician. In the opposing corner are the hard-core representatives of Israel’s cultural and arts scene, people who, for the most part, represent the country’s old elite: left-leaning, Ashkenazi and predominantly male. This elite was stunned by its defeat in the March 17 elections, but could do nothing but lick its wounds. This elite had believed that for the first time in years, it had a chance to overturn the government and put an end to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s grip on power. It had hoped that Israelis would return to the bosom of the Labor Party, rebranded the Zionist Camp, and that there would finally be an end to the worrying trends of nationalism, tribalism and extremism, which pose a real challenge to democracy. None of that, however, happened, and Netanyahu ended up naming an extremely vocal and belligerent member of the Knesset as his new minister of culture and sport, as if for spite.

Since Regev's appointment, every actor in the ensuing drama has played his or her role with fervor. As soon as Regev, once the chief military censor, assumed office, she announced her intent to censor cultural content if she deemed it necessary. Later, during a June 11 closed-door meeting with leading cultural figures, she said, “We received 30 seats, you got only 20,” referring to the Zionist Camp’s loss to the Likud in the elections. She also threatened the actor Norman Issa, a Christian Arab from Jaffa, saying that she would withdraw her ministry’s support for the children’s theater he had founded if he continued to refuse to perform in Jordan Valley settlements for ideological reasons.

The artists rose to their roles with gusto, as if following a script. They held an emergency meeting June 14, but failed to agree on what steps to take against what they described as an assault on their creative freedom. The one thing that did come out of the meeting was a loud public outcry crossing political boundaries in response to the infamous “Cattle Speech” by veteran actor Oded Kotler. His comments, which could be interpreted as comparing Likud voters to a herd of cattle, followed a series of remarks by artists from the left that infuriated large swathes of the population and triggered heated debates in traditional as well as social media. The same thing happened in April in following an interview with actress Anat Wachsman in which she described Likud voters as people “who hear the word ‘Arab’ and pop out of their holes.” It had also happened after a pre-election speech at a left-wing rally by author and artist Yair Garbuz. At that event, Garbuz complained that a small group of “amulet kissers and people who prostate themselves on the tombs of saints” had taken over the country.

Kotler got pummeled for his remarks from every possible direction, including the leaders of the left — Zionist Camp head Isaac Herzog and former Labor Party leader Shelly Yachimovich. Both were quick to disassociate themselves from Kotler’s remarks in the sharpest terms, as did many leading intellectuals. Very few dared stand by Kotler’s side, even after he explained that he meant to say that the entire country would become a herd of cattle if creative and cultural freedom were denied.