Strength lies in diversity

The debate over Israel's cultural soul has reached a great many decibels lately. It is too loud.

Culture and Sport Minister Miri Regev's ongoing rhetoric against the funding of certain productions and cultural venues has generated anxiety among Israel's artists and performers. This uneasiness was obviously at play when actor Oded Kotler spoke on Sunday at a protest event. His speech was definitely not Shakespearean.

"Mrs. Regev, imagine a world that is devoid of books, music, poetry; where no one stops a nation from celebrating an electoral victory of 30 Knesset seats [referring to Likud's Knesset representation], seats that are followed by a herd of straw-eating, cud-munching cattle-" he lamented. A herd of cattle? This statement was in bad taste, particularly because many of those he attacked go to the theater and attend productions that feature Kotler himself.

It is said that Israel has only summer and winter. Nothing in between. Likewise, our discourse has no grey area, only black and white. To paraphrase the Bible, we Israelis believe that those who are not like us are against us. Soon after a conversation starts, it quickly devolves into a free-for-all shooting range; it takes us only one sentence to realize that our sparring partner disagrees with us, after which we are at each other's throats, exercising no restraint whatsoever. We issue threats, we wish them a quick and gory demise and so forth. It is the tone that makes the music, says an old proverb, and the tone of the Israeli discourse has been particularly discordant.

There is an old joke about a man who dies and is told he will go to hell. However, the handful of good deeds he performed don't go unnoticed, and he is told that he can choose among three different infernos: the German, the American, or the Israeli. He is given a tour of the German hell, where he is told, "People wake up at 6 a.m.; they are then forced to enter a cauldron of boiling tar; then, at 8 p.m. they go to sleep. This is the daily routine." He then visits the American hell. "Here you wake up 6 a.m. too, and you also get the tar treatment," he is told. Then, he goes to the Israeli hell, where he discovers that it has the same routine, tar and all.

"I will choose the Israeli hell," he announces.

"But they're all the same, why the Israeli-" a bewildered angel asks, to which the man replies: "True, they are all the same, but in the Israeli hell 6 a.m is not really 6 a.m.; boiling tar is not really boiling tar."

Our artists and creators must keep this joke in mind. After all, we live in Israel, not in the Weimar republic. Our artists are not going to face a crackdown by Nazi thugs. As for Regev, she should keep in mind that in civilian life one cannot dictate culture from the top down. Culture is not some military division; she is not a drill sergeant who can make soldiers stand at attention. Culture is stronger when there are dissenting voices, when it challenges intellectual and social paradigms, when it irritates.

As President Reuven Rivlin said: "Some films cast a critical light on the state, and I too often move uncomfortably in my seat when I watch them. But we must remember that Israeli cinema is an Israeli ambassador, even when it is critical."

We must all remember that freedom of expression is essential for each and every one of us, and we must do our utmost to make sure it is safe and sound.