{"id":13347,"date":"2015-06-16T02:13:09","date_gmt":"2015-06-16T06:13:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/?p=13347"},"modified":"2015-06-16T02:13:09","modified_gmt":"2015-06-16T06:13:09","slug":"battle-over-free-speech-for-artists-and-writers-in-israel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/battle-over-free-speech-for-artists-and-writers-in-israel\/","title":{"rendered":"Battle over Free Speech for Artists and Writers in\u00a0Israel"},"content":{"rendered":"

via the always excellent Arabic Literature (in English)<\/strong><\/em>:<\/span><\/p>\n

BY MLYNXQUALEY<\/a><\/span><\/span> on<\/em> 0<\/a> )<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

In mid-April, pots began banging\u00a0over\u00a0<\/em>Parallel Time<\/a>,\u00a0a\u00a0production\u00a0for\u00a0which the state\u00a0froze Haifa-based al-Midan Theatre\u2019s financing. The state also began an investigation into the theatre\u2019s financing, and the Education Ministry effectively\u00a0banned the play from schools, retracting the work\u2019s eligibility for subsidized performances for students:<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Haifa's<\/a><\/p>\n

This happened when the Palestinian play, which depicts the life of a prisoner, was sur-titled in Hebrew. The Education Ministry, under Naftali Bennett, intervened to stop the play in schools.<\/p>\n

After that,\u00a0the\u00a0culture ministry\u00a0threatened to cut funds for a Jaffa children\u2019s theatre<\/a>\u00a0because its\u00a0Palestinian\u00a0founder, Norman Issa, refused to perform in a settlement.<\/p>\n

And a recent statement from Israel\u2019s\u00a0new Culture and Sports Minister Miri Regev<\/a>, trans. +972,<\/em>\u00a0states that \u201cInstitutions that delegitimize the State of Israel will not receive funding. \u2026. As minister of culture it\u2019s my job to ensure a diversity of voices in Israeli society, [but] currently we are in the midst of a diplomatic campaign and we must do everything possible to stop giving ammunition to our enemies.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s sparked a wave of protest from Israeli artists,\u00a02,000 of whom\u00a0signed a petition \u201cwarning against what they call anti-democratic measures being taken by the government against freedom of expression,\u201d according to\u00a0The Guardian.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Well-known Israeli novelist David Grossman, for instance, told <\/a>Haaretz<\/a>,<\/em>\u00a0\u201cThere are so many things to say, and yet Miri Regev has demarcated a field of discourse that is no wider than the opened blades of the censor\u2019s scissors.\u201d<\/p>\n

This came on the heels of the Knesset celebrating its first ever \u201cArab Book Day<\/a>,\u201d where MK\u00a0Issawi Frej called for greater support for Arabic literature,\u00a0according to\u00a0<\/a>The Algemeiner<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em>This project, which includes a digital library of Palestinian literature, seems little likely.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

via the always excellent Arabic Literature (in English): BY MLYNXQUALEY on JUNE 16, 2015 \u2022 ( 0 ) In mid-April, pots began banging\u00a0over\u00a0Parallel Time,\u00a0a\u00a0production\u00a0for\u00a0which the state\u00a0froze Haifa-based al-Midan Theatre\u2019s financing. The state also began...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59,79],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-israel","category-palestine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13347"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13347\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13348,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13347\/revisions\/13348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}