Israel’s top court cancels bonus plan for artists performing in settlements

Shortly after her appointment, in September 2015, Regev published new criteria for state support of cultural and sports institutions. Any groups negating the existence of the state of Israel as Jewish and democratic, any group deemed as inciting racism or violence and any group supporting assailants or terror perpetrators would see their state-funding canceled. The same went for groups marking the Palestinian Nakba day (the catastrophe) or calling for a boycott of Israel.

In 2016, Regev walked out of the Ophir awards ceremony for Israeli films when a poem by Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish was performed. Earlier that year, she wanted to compel cultural and sports institutions built with state funding to fly the Israeli flag. In 2018, Regev decided to withdraw state support of the Haifa Story festival, organized by the Jewish-Arab Beit Hagefen Cultural Center, and the list goes on.

Regev’s pro-settlement right-wing agenda and her provocations earned her the support of many Likud members. But there were also many in Israel who considered her as an authentic representative of the periphery and of often marginalized Mizrahi Israelis, standing up to the artistic community long controlled by an Ashkenazi elite.

The court ruling marks an end of a complex, complicated era for Israel’s cultural institutions.