Minister of Culture Miri Regev has been swept up by a wave of support, especially from the far right, for advancing the “No Loyalty, No Budget for the Arts” Law. It is what carried her to the premiere of "Evita" at the Habima National Theater in Tel Aviv the night of Jan. 27.

Just a few hours earlier, she had been involved in an impassioned argument with opposition Knesset members during a discussion by the Education and Culture Committee. On the table was a law she proposed to deny state funding to cultural institutions that allegedly assailed state symbols. “Cultural organizations that undermine the state will be denied budgets from the state,” Regev said during the debate. “Cultural institutions are not above the law. … Miri Regev did not come up with this law or that. All I want to do is enact a simple law that says that the minister who releases money can also prevent that money from being released.”

Regev’s proposed law sounded vaguely familiar to veteran Knesset members. Combing their memories, they recalled an amendment to the Cinema Law proposed by former Knesset member Michael Ben Ari of the Ichud Leumi faction in 2010. Regev and Ben Ari both used the term “freedom of funding” in their proposals, which described how they wanted to grant the government the right to deny funding from institutions of its choosing.

It would therefore seem that Regev’s law was inspired by one of the most radical Knesset members ever to serve in that august body. The one difference is that while Ben Ari held no senior position and was effectively a parliamentary backbencher, Regev is a senior politician and an influential minister from the ruling party, and ironically, that party has its roots in liberalism.