Even in the days of a caretaker transitional government, between elections, culture minister and former chief army censor Miri Regev refuses to lay down her censor stamp. The latest headliner is the documentary film “Advocate,” which tells the unique story of Jewish-Israeli attorney Lea Tsemel dubbed “the attorney of the terrorists.” The movie won first prize in May at the Docaviv International Documentary Film Festival in Tel Aviv, and as always, without even seeing it, Regev demanded that the national lottery that supported the film “dissociate itself from the prize and the festival leaders’ decision to award it to the film.” The national lottery management gave in and announced June 27 that it would examine legal options for rescinding its grant to the documentary and pull all future funding for the festival prize. Earlier in June, the directors of the Cinema South Festival decided to remove the film from its program, ignoring the recommendations of the festival's lecturers.

On June 21, a few dozen theater professionals convened at the Tzavta Theater in Tel Aviv for an “emergency conference” to discuss self-censorship in the theater. The message of the gathering, held under the auspices of the New Israel Fund and headlined “Censoring Ourselves to Death,” was clear: After four years as Israel’s culture czar, Regev has won.

“Israeli culture is growing silent in the face of the despotism practiced by the government ministries entrusted with supporting it,” playwright Motti Lerner wrote in a brochure handed out to participants. “They have forgotten that the role of the theater in a democratic society is to present ideas that challenge the consensus and offer soul-searching that encourages alternative thinking.” Lerner, whose play “Admission” deals with the trauma of the violent Israeli occupation of several Arab villages during the 1948 War of Independence, lashed out at the major repertory theaters (the Haifa, Cameri and Habimah) that refused to stage it. Lerner wrote that their decision was a "mark of Cain" for their leadership, who gave in to pressure and compromised the artistic integrity of the theaters they run. It was heard during the conference that Israeli audiences boycott politically themed theater, but the audience of 7,000 who filled the small auditorium of the Arab Theater, which staged the play, suggests otherwise.

Satirist and playwright B. Michael, one of the harshest critics of the occupation, recounted that the satirical cabaret he had written with friends Motti Kirschenbaum and Efraim Sidon was sold out for years. “The problem is not with the audience, it’s with those who dictate to it,” he said at the conference. “Give the audience straw, they'll eat straw.” In contrast, resident playwright of the Cameri Theater Gur Koren reported that the box office failure of Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible” forced the management to take it down after only 28 shows. He claimed, “Politics has stopped being of interest to audiences … people are sick of arguing.”