MORE THAN 500 Israeli artists have signed a petition to boycott a new cultural centre which opened last night in the West Bank settlement of Kiryat Arba, next to Hebron.
The 400-seat state-of-the-art auditorium, funded by the government and private donors, will host cultural events and plays from Israel’s leading theatres, but one performance was already in doubt after leading Israeli actor Rami Baruch declared that his conscience would not allow him to perform over the 1967 green line.
Baruch was due to portray Jonathan Pollard, the American convicted of spying for Israel, in the one-man play Pollard.
“Cultural activities should not take place in settlements, especially one that has built a grandiose park in the memory of Meir Kahane [the assassinated leader of the racist Kach party] and where Baruch Goldstein [the Kiryat Arba settler who carried out the Hebron mosque massacre in 1994] is buried,” said dramatist Vardit Shalfy, one of the boycott leaders.
“We hope that theatre companies will come to their senses and decide not perform.”
Malachi Levinger, head of the local Kiryat Arba council, said the centre would enable settlers to see cultural events locally, rather than travelling long distances to theatres within Israel proper.
“Kiryat Arba will now make its mark on the cultural map and serve as a cultural hub, hosting a wide range of performing arts,” he said. He criticised the boycott, saying that the artists in question would not object to performing in the Palestinian city of Ramallah, where streets and squares are named after terrorists.
The Cameri and Beit Lessin, two of Israel’s biggest theatre companies, issued a statement saying they would perform at the new venue but would not force actors or technicians to work against their conscience.
Last year Israeli artists signed a petition boycotting a cultural centre built in another West Bank settlement, Ariel. That boycott was condemned by government officials and prompted a controversial anti-boycott law passed by the Knesset in July, making it illegal for any citizen to advocate a boycott of Israel or West Bank settlements.
Far-right members in the Kiryat Arba council called for a committee to approve plays staged at the new centre and to vet actors to make sure they have served in the Israeli military. They also demanded performers sign a loyalty oath to the state of Israel.