Israel’s culture minister boobs (again)

Israel’s culture minister boobs (again)

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norman lebrecht

November 29, 2017

Miri Regev, the minister who likes to apply political conditions to public funding, has withdrawn subsidy from three groups whose act including topless dancing.

She has been warned that her action is unconstitutional.

But the fiercely ambitious minister knows the market to whom she is appealing.

More on her string-pulling here.

 

Comments

  • DAVID says:

    Unconstitutional?
    Israel does not have a constitution, last I checked.
    And what is so terrible about the Israeli government not funding performances that are counter to the moral standards and values of a significant percentage of its citizens?

    • John Borstlap says:

      Agreed. Topless dancing should not be state-supported ‘culture’. Governments would do better to draw clear lines for productions which do and do not endorse vulgarity, because financial state support for low-level events justify populism and in the end, real cultural productions will suffer. (Wich can, nowadays, clearly be noticed in a country like the Netherlands, where recently plans have been developed to state-fund DJ dance events and pop, as if such events cannot pay for themselves; meanwhile, orchestras are forced to merge under subsidy cuts pressures, and serious artists are redirecting their activites abroad.)

      • Pacer1 says:

        Good Lord! The syntax used in the grammar for this blog is no better than that in tabloid journalism. (I know, I know; what else is new.)

        Mr. Bortslap: it’s not “topless dancing”, it’s ‘dancing topless’. Full or partial nudity has been part of the Art Form of Modern Dance since before Isadora Duncan 100 years ago; never mind the ancient Greeks. Vulgar? Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

        In some (enlightened) societies, it is the norm that a government will support the Arts, but will not dictate what art is produced. It’s called “arms length”.

        Read some real journalism here: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/nov/28/nudity-israeli-dancers-conflict-culture-minister-jerusalem

    • David says:

      Also: What’s with the cartoon? Is a government’s declining to fund nude dance performance equivalent to its barring Mozart?

      • Pianofortissimo says:

        They have seen the Friedrich Gulda video from the 90’s – lascivious dance to the tune of the Rondo alla turca.

    • Anon says:

      Maybe the moral standards of (a significant percentage of) the population are then the problem. All these reactionary immigrants from Russia certainly haven’t made that place a better place.

  • Albert Einstein says:

    Miri Regev and the other fascist hooligans which have taken over the Israel government are a disgrace to Jewish culture and heritage and destroy irreversibly the state of Israel. Petty and corrupt politicians who destroy the zionist endeavor.

    • DAVID says:

      Exactly which tennant or value of Judaism is violated or destroyed by denying government sponsorship to these performances?

      • Anon says:

        what has Judaism to do with any of this? Is Israel a religious state like Iran or Saudi-Arabia

        • DAVID says:

          When you mentioned Jewish Heritage, I assumed, perhaps incorrectly, that Judaism and Jewish values would figure into Jewish heritage.

          So, what part of Jewish heritage endorses government support of this kind of performance?

          • Anon says:

            What “kind of performance”? it’s an international dance festival. there are also some dancers with bare breasts. It’s not like a pole dance in Las Vegas. Governments who have no problem subsidizing war, but have a problem subsidizing art that celebrates the human body, are doomed anyway.

  • Bruce says:

    “Israel’s culture minister boobs (again)”

    Is boob a verb?

    (Oh. Apparently it is: http://www.dictionary.com/browse/boob?s=t)

  • Maria says:

    Since when has topless dancing needed a subsidy?

    Paul Raymond missed a trick there, didn’t he?

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