Culture minister threatens Batsheva Dance Company’s funding over use of Palestinian flag in show

Culture Minister Miki Zohar asks Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich to examine whether the Batsheva Dance Company is in violation of its state funding over a performance that included the Palestinian flag.
Zohar says in the letter to Smotrich that he received “several complaints from people who attended the show and said that in the final segment, three Palestinian flags were waved on stage and thrown at the main dancer in an act that simulated shrouds.”
“I am saddened to see that a year after the most horrific massacre in the history of the country, there are already those who forgot our hostages in Hamas tunnels and forget the soldiers fighting on all fronts, and boldly wave a flag that opposes the State of Israel,” Zohar writes.
According to Channel 12, the Palestinian flag was among some 40 other flags used in the performance, and while Zohar claimed it was a new show by the acclaimed dance troupe, it was in fact their iconic Anafaza, which premiered in December 1993.
In a statement, Batsheva says that it is saddened by Zohar’s letter.
“There is no reason to deny a budget according to the budget law. The use of the Palestinian flag in the work, alongside dozens of other flags, was done in a broad artistic context,” the statement reads.
הקטע המדובר ב״אנאפאזה״, שגרם לשר מיקי זוהר לבחון את שלילת התקציב של להקת בת שבע: עשרות דגלים בהם דגל פלסטין מונפים על ידי הרקדנים על הבמה
(????: אסקף) pic.twitter.com/yByspeaYnX— טליה בנון צור????️ (@TaliaBanonTsur) December 18, 2024
Earlier this month, Zohar asked Smotrich to examine the possibility of denying funding to the Tel Aviv Cinematheque based on the films screened at the arthouse theater as part of the Solidarity Festival.
Zohar wrote in a letter to Smotrich that the annual festival screened films that could be described as “extremist,” including movies that opposed the State of Israel, slandered IDF soldiers and the army, and aimed to strengthen the Palestinian identity of Arab residents of mixed Jewish-Arab cities in Israel.
Zohar asked Smotrich to examine whether the Tel Aviv Cinematheque violated any grounds of the budget law, which could then allow the denial of its state funding.