Culture minister: I will decide who gets funding

Miri Regev presents her bill to cut subsidies to cultural institutions deemed not to be “loyal” to the state, which gives the Likud lawmaker power to decide which film and theatrical productions meet criteria for awarding grants.

Regev, presenting the bill before parliament’s education committee, warns she will “not be an ATM.”

While insisting she does not wish to impose “censorship and undermine freedom of expression”, Regev says she intends to have “the authority to determine who should receive public money.”

“Cultural institutions that engage in subversive activities against the state of Israel will not receive anything,” she says.

The draft is denounced by the opposition, as well as by many artists and commentators.

“This text reflects an idiot patriotism,” says Ilan Gilon, an MK in the leftist opposition party Meretz.

— AFP