Education Minister Naftali Bennett announced Wednesday that the Israel Prize for visual arts will not be awarded this year, after the prize committee was unable to reach a consensus about the recipient's identity. The disagreement among the four committee members focused on artist Yair Garbuz, who was endorsed by three of the four committee members. "If this means the prize won't be awarded this year, so be it," Bennett said. The 2017 Israel Prize is divided into nine categories, with the visual arts prize being the last one awarded. Nominees are suggested by the public and are chosen by a selection committee of experts in each field. Israel Prize bylaws state that in case of a disagreement among committee members, the education minister may either choose a new panel of judges or cancel the award. Bennett's decision to cancel the visual arts prize therefore effectively prevented Garbuz from winning the award. Garbuz sparked controversy during the 2015 general elections after giving a speech at a left-wing rally where he called the ruling government a "handful of extremists" and the majority who elected them "amulet kissers." Garbuz was lambasted as racist and an elitist over the speech, which many saw as an attack on Mizrahi Jews and right-wing voters. "The professional committee met and was unable to decide on a nomination. They met a second time, updated me and we decided not to meet again. If this means the prize will not be given this year, so be it," Bennett said. "There is no 'handful,' only one people," he stressed, referring to Garbuz's now-infamous remark. "I'm not an expert on visual arts, but for too many years we have been subscribing to definitions of high culture and low culture, saying that these are the majority and those are the handful. I don't know who the majority is and who the handful is. Was [medieval Jewish philosopher and poet] Rabbi Yehuda Halevi the handful? Was [medieval Jewish philosopher] Maimonides the handful? We have a wonderful culture and no one has a monopoly on it. I completely support the prize committee's decision. We are all one people and one proud handful," he said. Speaking with Army Radio Wednesday, Garbuz said he was "happy to have been nominated and happy not to receive it [the prize] from Bennett. The prize should be given unanimously and they didn't reach a unanimous decision. I didn't lose the Israel prize and I didn't receive it, and this doesn't disappoint me. All I lost was a handshake from Bennett and a sum of money, both of which I'll manage just fine without." Garbuz later told Israel Hayom that he "doesn't have the energy for Bennett to pull me back into this media frenzy."
