Regev threatens to pull Jaffa theater’s funding

Culture Minister Miri Regev writes on Facebook she may withdraw funding from a Jaffa theater where Arab-Israeli actor Norman Issa is a co-manager after the actor says he will not perform in a Haifa Theater production scheduled to take place in the Jordan Valley because the venue is beyond the Green Line.

“I was disappointed to hear the actor Norman Issa’s statement this morning saying that he would not appear in the Haifa Theater’s play ‘Boomerang’ in the Jordan Valley,” Regev writes on Facebook.

“Issa’s decision does not exemplify the coexistence that he believes in and swears by. If Norman does not go back on his decision, it is my intention to reevaluate the ministry’s support of the Elmina theater, which operates under his management.”

Issa says in response that over the last 24 hours he has been the victim of “an unfair witch hunt,” according to Haaretz. “I am an Israeli Arab, married to a Jewish woman and raising a great family. My wife and I devote our entire lives to realizing coexistence among Jews and Arabs and to this end we also established the theater in Jaffa. You cannot expect me to go against my conscience and agree to perform in places which are controversial. This issue is not new and the problem was solved years ago in all theaters in Israel when it was decided that in any play, when an actor, whether Jewish or Arab, is unwilling to perform due to conscientious reasons, they can be replaced with a substitute actor.”

Issa adds that he told the Haifa Theater more than four years ago that for this particular performance he should be replaced but the exchange did not take place. “The pressure against me verges on blackmail. It is not fair… Don’t make me act against my conscience just to remove this threat,” he says.

The Elmina Theater says in response: “We have no reason to believe the Culture Minister Miri Regev will prevent subsidies from the Elmina Theater NGO – a multicultural theater for Jewish and Arab children withstanding all criteria justifying state support. This is a nonprofit organization, and its credo is that an experience of theater jointly enjoyed by Jewish and Arab children without prejudice is capable of generating a shift in societal consciousness.”