Controversy in Israel, after a petition for artists against war in Gaza
A petition for artists calling for the war in the Gaza Strip aroused strong controversy in Israel. “As men and women of culture and art in Israel, we find ourselves, against our will and our values, accomplices – as Israeli citizens – of the responsibility of horrible events in the Gaza Strip”devastated by war and threatened with famine, affirms the text, published Sunday in the Israeli media, and signed by nearly a thousand artists. “Stop war. Release the hostages “argue the signatories.
Artists from all walks of life are among the signatories, including writers Zeruya Shalev, Etgar Keret, singers Achinoam Nini and Chava Alberstein, choreographer Ohad Naharin and directors Nadav Lapid and Shlomi Elkabetz. The text is also signed by the famous writer David Grossman, who described as “Genocide” The war waged in Gaza, in an interview published on 1is August by the Italian daily La Repubblica.
Part of the world of culture has rebelled against the initiative, and in a furious reaction on X, the Minister of Israeli Culture, Miki Zohar, asked the petitioners to “Retract”. He called them to “Take example” on other artists, including the famous singer and actor Idan Amedi and the actress Moran Atias, “Who embody Israeli lucidity and patriotism that, unfortunately, [ils] [ont] long lost ”. Known for its role in the series FaudaIdan Amedi described protest artists as “Fake News diffusers”accusing them of being “Disconnected” realities of war. “Enter a moment in a tunnel. Fight even one day like tens of thousands of reservists-and then sign petitions “he wrote on social networks.
Idan Amedi was seriously injured, the body burned in January 2024 in Gaza, where he was fighting as a reservist. “There is no other army in the world which operates in a space as densely populated with such a minimal number of civilian victims”he said saying that “In each Gaza house, there is anti -Semitic propaganda”. Moran Atias, for his part, denounced on the Kan public channel, the fact that the petition did not criticize Hamas, which is not mentioned.