The Knesset’s Coronavirus Committee has concluded a meeting on the dire state of culture in Israel, which had been largely shut down since the outbreak of the pandemic in March, leaving some 150,000 people out of work.
Itamar Grotto, deputy director-general of the Health Ministry, told the committee he supports examining steps to allow culture events to resume.
Committee chief Yifat Shasha-Biton said the government would look at ways in which events could be held, primarily outside. “We will discuss ‘how’ and not ‘if,'” she said.
MK Yifat Shasha-Biton at a Knesset Coronavirus Committee meeting on July 19, 2020. (screen capture: Knesset livestream)
She says theaters should be allowed to hold shows outside, though it is not yet clear how this will be done.
Tzipi Pines, director of Tel Aviv’s Beit Lessin Theater, told the committee: “The earth is shaking. We’ve been at home for five months and there’s no goal date… If this goes on, we’ll never be able to reopen.”
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