Israel Asks Culture Institutions to Declare if They Hold Performances in Settlements

[Israeli]

Culture Minister Miri Regev begins implementing new criteria for funding cultural institutions.

Yair Ashkenazi Jun 15, 2016

Israeli cultural institutions received a form from the government on Monday asking them to state whether they had or hadn’t offered performances last year in the Negev, the Galilee or West Bank settlements.

The form was sent to theaters, orchestras and dance troupes by the Pilat company’s Center for Cultural Information and Research, which collects data from cultural institutions for the Culture and Sports Ministry.

The form is related to new funding criteria instituted by Culture and Sports Minister Miri Regev in April. Under these criteria, institutions that offer no performances in the settlements, the Negev or the Galilee will suffer a 33 percent cut in their government funding. Moreover, performances in the settlements will earn an institution a 10-percent bonus.

(snip)

Choreographer Noa Dar, founder and director of the eponymous dance group, said that being forced to state whether or not her troupe performed in these locales “is essentially a demand to tie my political opinions and my conscience to ministry funding. This is an anti-democratic act.

read more: http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.725065