State Sponsored Arts
Based on the outrage you would be forgiven for concluding that a serious crime has been committed.
There is much gnashing of teeth and howls of outrage.
It’s only to be expected since the ones feeling the outrage are actors and artists. Too bad they weren’t more careful about overacting.
As reported in Arutz 7, Artists Hold Emergency Sessions Against Culture Minister:
Hundreds of Israeli artists took part Sunday in emergency sessions at Yafo (Jaffa) Port and at the Haifa Port to protest what they claim are illegitimate decisions by the new government affecting their freedom.
They make it sound like they were all put behind bars.
The message they sent [minister Miri] Regev was a mixed one. They reportedly intend to deliver a summary of the sessions to the new culture minister, Miri Regev (Likud), in which they will ask to work in complete cooperation with her. At the same time, many of them delivered insults and told her she had no business telling them what to do with the funds they receive from the government.
It’s too bad they never realized until now that government funding comes with strings attached.
Three hundred artists from the film, theater, dance, literature and music industries signed a letter Sunday, “protesting the non-democratic measures taken by the Education and Culture Ministries against artists whose creative works or outlooks do not jive with the spirit in these offices.”
“We the undersigned are the voices you wish to silence,” the artists fired to conclude their letter. “We hope with all our hearts that Israel does not deteriorate and become a country in which artists who express their views are put on a ‘blacklist.'”
So many people confuse notions that should not be confused. The government deciding not to fund a project is not the same as censorship.
To censor a project is to declare it cannot be performed under any circumstances.
No one is saying the defunded projects can’t be performed. They’ll just have to do it without taxpayers’ shekels.
At the very least the government should not fund projects that involve Shabbat desecration.
Perhaps it would be best for the government to stop all funding of arts and crafts.