Iran-Israel conflict postpones Israel Festival themed on months of war
Annual summer cultural event was to spend week in Galilee, Golan and Negev before moving to Jerusalem starting in July
Jessica Steinberg, The Times of Israel's culture and lifestyles editor, covers the Sabra scene from south to north and back to the center
The 64th Israel Festival, scheduled to open on July 3, will be postponed due to the Israel-Iran conflict, according to the festival’s management.
“The festival deeply shares in the sorrow of the families of the victims, prays for the soldiers’ safety, and hopes for the return of all the captives now,” stated the festival organizers. “Looking for quiet days and future-defining cultural moments.”
This year’s Israel Festival, for the first time in its 64 years of existence as a summer cultural program, planned on having four days of events in the Upper Galilee and Golan Heights, and then three in the Western Negev, following nine days in the customary site, Jerusalem. All were meant to offer perspectives on the country’s post-October 7 circumstances.
Jerusalem, along with the northern towns of Kiryat Shmona, Tel Hai, Kfar Blum and Majdal Shams, and Ofakim, Kibbutz Urim and Kibbutz Tze’elim in the south, were to host the festival’s unique mix of performance art and music, theater and dance.
Last year’s festival was delayed until September 2024, and was held in Jerusalem and in the Western Negev, the epicenter of the October 7 Hamas massacre, where terrorists killed some 1,200 people and took 251 hostages to Gaza.
This year’s planned Israel Festival events included multiple performance referring directly to the tragedies and traumas of the last 20 months of war.
The festival was not planning to host any international performers, a regular feature that was seen as an opportunity for Israelis to access European and American entertainers.
The Times of Israel Community.