The Burden of Free Speech

In the last few days we have witnessed a series of disturbing moves by Israel’s new Culture Minister Miri Regev (you may remember her from an anti-immigrant rally in Tel Aviv a few years ago, during which she called Sudanese refugees “a cancer”) and the new Education Minister Naftali Bennett aimed at chilling Israeli citizens’ freedom of thought, action, and creative expression.

Many, although not all, of these nasty moves have been aimed at Arab-Israelis.

Last week, Minister Regev threatened to oppose, and pull institutional funding for, the Elmina Theater in Jaffa, a Jewish-Arab children’s theater that works to foster coexistence through art. Elmina’s sin? The theater’s founder, revered Israeli actor Norman Issa, recently said he would not participate in the performance of a play over the Green Line.

Then, in a meeting over budgeting for cultural programming with top theater directors and artists, Regev announced that she had full control over funding, declaring “we [the Likud] got 30 mandates and you got only 20. We know the left claims culture for themselves but they are confused about who the people actually chose [to lead them]”. Notwithstanding the fact that 30 seats represents only about 25% of the voting population of the country – hardly an overwhelming popular mandate – Minister Regev seems to fundamentally misunderstand something about her role: she is now the Culture Minister of all Israelis, not just the ones who voted for her party, and using her powerful role to punish those with whom she disagrees only pushes Israel further away from its democratic moorings and further away from being the open, vibrant liberal society we so cherish.

The good news is, the Minister’s comments provoked a political storm. Over 1,500 Israeli artists signed a petition accusing her of involvement in “anti-democratic moves instigated by governmental organizations.” One of Israel’s most prominent and beloved authors, David Grossman, spoke out, warning that:

“The danger is that if such a process continues and if our isolation in the world increases – Israel will become nothing more than a militant, fundamentalist and inward-looking sect on the margins of history… The [culture] minister’s highest interest needs to be contact with reality, and [to allow] criticism to be as deep and wide and varied as possible.”

“Sometimes we need to also include what makes us hurt. The principle of absolute freedom to express one’s opinion is such a strong element in the life of society, and we are in a constant process of its erosion and even abhorring it. We are pursuing a narrow, literal ‘justice’ that is more than anything self-righteousness. In such a place, as [Israeli poet] Yehuda Amichai said, no flowers or culture will grow.”

Constraints on freedom of expression and artistic freedom, no less than attacks on civil rights organizations and human rights defenders, are evidence of the erosion of the very fiber of liberal democracy. This is a canary in the coal mine moment, and we must pay attention. Nothing less than the soul of the Israel we love so deeply is at stake.