Israel prize judges resign after Binyamin Netanyahu's 'political' intervention
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Version 0 of 1. Israel’s most prestigious award, the Israel prize, has been plunged into controversy after the prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, intervened to remove three prominent judges of whose politics he disapproves. Netanyahu has been accused of declaring war on the country’s intellectual life, and a series of judges – including the entire literature panel – and candidates for the award’s different fields have resigned or withdrawn their candidacy amid fears that this year’s literature prize may not take place. Set up to award excellence in the arts, science and broader cultural and social contributions, the Israel prize is one of the country’s most venerable intellectual institutions. Inaugurated in 1953, it is handed out on Israel’s Independence Day with a $20,000 award in each category. Among more than 600 recipients of the prize have been the novelists Amos Oz and AB Yehoshua, former prime minister Golda Meir, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial and the philosopher Martin Buber. The composition of the panel that selects Israel prize laureates must be balanced Since it was revealed this week that the prime minister’s office had intervened to block two judges for the literature prize and one for the theatre award the prize has been plunged into an escalating row, with Netanyahu publicly accusing some prize judges of being extremists and “anti-Zionists” who award the honour to their friends. The intervention by Netanyahu’s office is understood to be the first time a senior Israeli government minister has intervened to remove the prize’s judges for political reasons. Responding to criticism from judges – Netanyahu appeared to concede the reason for his office’s intervention was not the intellectual qualifications of the judges but their political beliefs. “The composition of the panel that selects Israel prize laureates must be balanced and faithfully reflect the various streams, positions and strata of Israeli society,” Netanyahu wrote on his Facebook page. “However, over the years, more and more radical figures, including anti-Zionists – for example, those who support refusal to serve in the IDF [Israel Defence Forces] – have been appointed to the panel and too few authentic representatives of other parts of the nation … “The situation in which a small and closed group, which holds extremist views, has control of the selection of the winners of the Israel prize, must change.” In response critics have accused Netanyahu of a “purge” and behaving like a Soviet official. Prize juries are usually selected by an invited chairman and a senior civil servant at the education ministry and then approved by the education minister. But since the resignation of Shay Piron the latter role has devolved to Netanyahu’s office before March’s elections. The controversy was triggered by the decision of the prime minister’s office at the beginning of the week to refuse to approve the appointment of Chaim Sharir to the film prize committee, and to remove without explanation Avner Holtzman and Ariel Hirschfeld from the literature committee. Related: Netanyahu: speech to US Congress about 'the very survival of my country' Israeli media has suggested Netanyahu’s objection to Hirschfeld stemmed from the fact he had signed a petition with more than 300 other academics a decade ago supporting students and lecturers who refused to serve as soldiers in the occupied Palestinian territories. Commenting on his removal to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Hirschfeld said: “The prime minister took upon himself to determine the degree of Zionism of people who devote their whole life to Israeli culture.” On Tuesday evening the novelist, dramatist and critic Yitzhak Ben Ner became the latest to withdraw his candidacy for one of the prizes, writing he was doing so “in protest of the systematic trampling of the executive branch and the turning of the Israel prize into an award based on the taste of the prime minister and his advisers”. He added: “It’s all politics and now it is dirtying the institution of the Israel prize as well. “One option is that there will not be an Israel prize this year, and the second one is that the Israel prize will be a showcase with a fixed panel of judges, which will agree to cover up the shame. In doing this Netanyahu will prove, in front of the people and the world, that the national prize has been prostituted.” Others who have announced they are withdrawing either their candidacy or involvement in judging include the novelist Haim Be’er – a candidate for the literature award – Gail Hareven, author of The Confessions of Noa Weber, and actor Yona Elian who had been on the judging panel for the film prize. One option is that there will not be an Israel prize this year “I do not want to take part in this pathetic fiasco,” Elian told the Israeli media explaining her withdrawal. “The Israel prize is too important to be involved in this sort of travesty. Appointments that are dictated ahead of time and disqualifications that are made in such away are in opposition to the spirit of the arts that I know.” Speaking to the Guardian from New York, professor Nissim Calderon, chairman of the literary research prize committee, who stood down earlier, condemned the political interference as authoritarian, “hackery” and a blow to Israeli democracy. “The background to this is that I believe that Netanyahu has entered a new phase. He is now attacking the intellectual community. He is not attacking that or this person. “This is something that has never happened before. The Israel prize is considered the highest prize in the state. Whether it is the arts or chemistry or physics or mathematics or in research into literature or the bible, those who have got it have been respected by intellectual community.” Defending Netanyahu’s intervention on Israel Radio, Limor Livnat, a former education minister from Netanyahu’s Likud party said the literature and film prize committees had not been finalised, despite the civil servant in charge of the prize having invited judges to be on the panels, and those judges rbeginning work. Livnat said: “No committee had yet been appointed for the Israel prize for literature or cinema. The person who appoints the committee, and this is according to the bylaws for the Israel prize, is the education minister. In this case, it is the prime minister who is today also education minister. Nobody else appoints committees.” |