2 Israel Prize judges removed from panel, sparking controversy

A decision by the Prime Minister's Office on Tuesday to remove professors Ariel Hirschfeld and Avner Holtzman from the judging panel for the Israel Prize for Literature has created a storm.

Officials in the PMO explained the decision: "After it became clear that one of the candidates to serve on the committee supported [military] insubordination, it was decided to reevaluate the makeup of the panel."

The officials did not name the judge in question, but it was clear that they were referring to Hirschfeld, who has signed the academics' petition "Refusing for Israel," which supports students and lecturers who refuse to perform military service in Judea and Samaria. The decision to remove Holtzman was not explained, but the decision to reexamine the judging panel applied to all the members.

The disqualification of Hirschfeld and Holtzman met with stiff opposition in literary circles, and the rest of the judging committee for the literature prize -- Professor Nissim Calderon, Professor Nurit Gretz, Professor Ziva Ben-Porat, and Dr. Uri Hollander -- announced their resignation in protest. As if that weren't enough, one of the candidates for the prize itself, Professor Yigal Schwartz, withdrew from the running and called on his fellow candidates to do the same.

The four judges who resigned in protest sent a letter to David Felber, who supervises the Israel Prize in the Education Ministry (Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is currently acting education minister) in which they called the removal of the two judges "politicization of the most important prize in Israel, which is supposed to be awarded based on professional and artistic considerations only."

Calderon said that "a politician decided that certain professionals didn't suit him, so we resigned from the [judging] committee. I really don't understand Netanyahu's motives."

The committee responsible for deciding the winner of the Israel Prize for Film has also been the scene of controversial conduct. Filmmaker Chaim Sharir left the committee, explaining that "a month ago, I was invited to join the committee and I agreed. Last Wednesday I was told that my name hadn't been approved by some official in the Education Ministry, without any explanation."

The Education Ministry said in a statement: "The appointment of members to the judging committee for the Israel Prize for Film was held up for a few days to ensure that the committee was gender-balanced. ... Chaim Sharir was asked again, but he chose not to participate in the committee."

The Zionist Camp also issued a response to the decision to remove Hirschfeld and Holtzman from the judging panel for the literature prize: "In a nation of Bibi-Bennett-Struck-Smotrich, equality, democracy, and freedom of speech are forbidden words and the words coalition money, isolated settlements, international isolation, government corruption and 'price tag' are the reality we live in."

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