THE ISRAELI TABLOID Israel HaYom -- if you can believe ANY “news”paper — had a story about artists in Israel complaining that , essentially, the government refused to subsidize anti-Israel “art.”
Whatever happened to the proverbial “starving artist” or artists who worked for the love of their art? They disappeared with the advent of (a) government subsidies and (b) paint-by-the-numbers production lines.
In the U.S. government subsidies really got started in earnest during the depression and — I suspect Eleanor — Roosevelt started funding artists, primarily photographers and writers, to record the depression’s impact on America.
Governments are no different than other patrons of art; they fund what appeals to them. Artists quickly learn that if they bite the hand that feeds them, soon the subsidies (the “food”) will go to other artists who know what their patrons appreciate.
APPARENTLY THIS “economic fact of life” has been ignored by some in Israel who claim to be artists.
The “weasel wording” some in Israel who claim to be artists is because this scrivener suspects that some who fall into this category are not Israelis — neither Jewish Israelis nor Arab Israelis.
Under a headline reading Artists decry funding limitations as curtailing freedom of creation the tabloid reported that:
“Representatives of various artists' organizations and cultural institutions in Israel met this weekend at the Jaffa Theater to discuss "the significance of the orders that have been handed down to the world of culture and art."
“The participants in the meeting expressed unilateral solidarity with the Jaffa Theater and the Arabic-language Al-Midan Theater in Haifa, which have come under the budgetary gun for hosting a program whose content was deemed inappropriate or subversive. This summer, Jaffa Theater hosted an event for former Joint Arab List MK Basel Ghattas, who was convicted for smuggling cell phones to Palestinian security prisoners. Al-Midan Theater has mounted a play glorifying the terrorist murder of IDF soldier Moshe Tamam in 1984.
“The artists are calling on the government to "stop the hounding and persecution of Al-Midan Theater, the Jaffa Theater, the cinematheques, creators and artists because of their artistic activity in various fields of the arts."
Then there are the artists who complain when Israel won’t fund projects that those involved will not perform over the so-called green line.
Given that Israel tolerates members of knesset who actively incite violence against the government in which they sit and the state that provided their education and pays their (knesset) salaries, I suppose the “artists” demands are to be expected.
Even with the ever growing chasm between left and right wing politicians in the United States, I can’t think of anyone in congress (House and Senate) who, as an act of treason, promotes violence against the government or promotes the overthrow of the government as a whole. (Yes, there are politicians who encourage rioters and who encourage people to rail against people of the opposing party — I don’t mention ex-presidents and ex-presidential candidates names — but at least they don’t promote replacing the government with that of a self-proclaimed foe of the country. It would be as if a senator stood on the floor of the Senate and proclaimed America should be ruled by North Korea.)
Maybe I’m simple, but if a movie stars an actor I dislike, I keep my money in my jeans. If a concert program lists early Aaron Copeland, I’ll pass; on the other hand, if it is “later” Copeland I may be first in line for tickets. I’ll pass on Yiddish comedies (I don’t understand Yiddish), but a Hebrew comedy is another matter (I understand Hebrew — פחות או יותר.(
Governments are, after all, funded by taxpayers. I don’t want my money — taxes or otherwise — funding something that I find obnoxious, obscene.
If the “artists” want to slam — or shame — Israel, that’s their right, but don’t whine when the State refuses to fund the activity.
Israel HaYom
http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=45271
PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.
