The Knesset's Education and Culture Committee held a session on Nov. 6 on the “loyalty in culture” law, which would allow the culture minister to defund programs deemed to reject Israel’s symbols. Before the Knesset's second and third readings of the bill, Deputy Attorney General Dina Zilber had the opportunity to address the committee, delivering a carefully crafted speech that the media dubbed “The Country Has Changed.” It was, in fact, a social, political and legal manifesto against the government. More than a simple legal opinion expressing reservations about Culture Minister Miri Regev’s proposed law, Zilber’s address was intended to send shock waves through the system, to protest the government and to feature on the media’s agenda.

Zilber has prior experience with events like this. She was therefore fully aware that her remarks would be filmed and otherwise recorded. With her statement, she appeared to want her admonition to reverberate beyond the Knesset committee’s chambers.

“These are not easy times,” she said, delivering her lucid message in a soft, stable voice. “They bring with them not just new laws, but even new words: governance, loyalty, overriding. We see confrontational dialogue, the wounding and scarring of our shared social fabric, labeling and branding — who is for us and who is against us.”

The debate in which Zilber participated took place one day after the Knesset approved the first reading of the so-called loyalty in culture law. This controversial legislation aims to allow the Culture Ministry to deny government support to cultural institutions for a variety of reasons, including but not limited to denying Israel’s existence as a Jewish and democratic state, incitement to racism, support for terrorism, desecrating the flag, marking the anniversary of Israel’s independence as a day of mourning (i.e., the Palestinians' Nakba Day), and so on.