Culture clubbed - Haaretz

Subscribe to Print Edition

Thu., August 09, 2007 Av 25, 5767

Israel Time: 00:11 (EST+7)

web haaretz.com

Back to Homepage

Print Edition

Diplomacy

Defense

Real Estate

Arts & Leisure

Jewish World

National

Sports

Advertising

Magazine

Week's End

Opinion

Business

Rosner's Domain

Anglo File

Travel

Q&A

del.icio.us

Digg It! new

Culture clubbed

By Zipi Shohat

In the Nordic bloc that has its reservations about Israel, a crack has appeared: The film festival in Copenhagen this September will spotlight Israeli cinema. This is only one of the manifestations of the recognition local filmmakers have been winning around the world lately. Copenhagen will be joining a long list that includes Toronto, Cannes and 120 other festivals that have screened Israeli films during the past year. This year "The Band's Visit" was invited to more than 50 festivals, "Beaufort" to 30, "Tehilim" to 20, and "Jellyfish" to at least 20 festivals.

Israeli literature is also flourishing abroad: In the decade between 1995 and 2005, 1,731 books were translated into a total of 67 different languages, a marked increase over the previous decade, when 1,083 books were translated into 25 languages. Every year Israel participates in more than a dozen international book fairs and at the Paris Book Fair next March, translated Hebrew literature will be a major theme.

Film and literature are not alone: Many types of homegrown performing arts are in demand abroad and are succeeding to break through the barrier of opposition that Israel arouses (see "100s of performances" box). The body that is supposed to help market Israeli culture abroad is the Foreign Ministry's division for cultural and scientific affairs (DCSA). There they have already internalized the significance of the power of Israeli culture as a means for promoting the image of the "other" Israeli, who is not a soldier of the occupation.

	Advertisement

The use of culture as a lever is not an Israeli invention. Only recently the Polish government, for example, allocated 2 million euros for improving its image in Israel by means of cultural activities, along with similar measures in other countries. At the Israeli Foreign Ministry, too, they understand that culture can succeed where politics has failed, but they prefer a more diplomatic formulation - they would say that cultural activity can be helpful in advancing diplomatic efforts.

"A dramatic development" is how Arthur Avnon, the deputy director general for cultural and scientific affairs at Ministry of Foreign Affairs, defines the demand for Israeli culture abroad. "In terms of economic growth, the export has doubled," he says. "Israeli creativity, for which people have received Nobel Prizes in science, medicine and technology, is also manifested in culture."

So much for the good news; the rest, however, is "all black," as Avnon himself defines it. If culture is an export that has doubled, the investment in it has been absurd. At the DCSA there are those who are harshly critical of the stasis at the ministry and who point an accusatory finger at the higher-ups.

"Slogans are bandied about concerning the recognition of the importance of Israeli culture for the promotion of Israel's image in the world," says Ofra Ben Yaakov, director of the art department at the DCSA, "but in practice we haven't seen any expansion of budgets or adjustment of them to the demand for our culture abroad."

The figures are indeed surprising: The ministry's budget for all areas of the arts amounts to NIS 17.5 million. This is lower, for example, than the amount of the government's support for a single theater, Habimah, whose annual subsidy is nearly NIS 20 million - and even that is not enough. Moreover, the NIS 17.5 million includes the salaries of employees who work in the cultural fields at 100 Israeli legations around the world (in the U.S. alone there are 35); Israel's participation in Fulbright Foundation academic exchange grants; the maintenance of the Israeli pavilion at the Venice Biennale; the budget of the Institute for the Translation of Hebrew Literature; hospitality costs for visitors who come to Israel on cultural matters, and more. After all of that, the net budget for cultural activities amounts to only NIS 5.3 million. Thus, this year the DCSA has withdrawn its support for the important International Exposure project for dance and theater, which brought to Israel festival directors from 23 countries.

Not only is the budget tiny. So is the number of cultural attaches in all of the 100 Israeli legations around the world: There are only four of them, stationed in Moscow, Paris, Berlin and New York. Why there? At DCSA they have no answer to this question. They also are unable to explain how it is that in important centers like London, Washington, Rome, Madrid, Tokyo and Beijing, Israel has no cultural attaches. At the DCSA they hint that this is a situation that has been inherited from the past, from the period of some other minister. And what could bring about a change? Avnon's answer: "The power to change this is in the hands of the Finance Ministry."

As recently as five years ago, there were 14 cultural attaches at legations abroad, and even then this was considered a small number. Cuts led to a further reduction in the number. Ten posts were eliminated, not frozen. "When there are cuts at the Foreign Ministry," says Ben Yaakov, "the first thing they do is eliminate culture positions."

One might wonder, then, why posts that haven't been eliminated have not been manned - for example, the position of music department head at DCSA, which since January has not been filled. The reason for this, according to DCSA, is that "candidates have not been found in the Foreign Ministry pool." Indeed no such candidate has been found, because a position in the area of culture is not considered attractive there.

"If the average diplomat's aim is to be head of legation in a crucial capital and to influence diplomatic processes, it's clear that his specialization in music or any other field of culture isn't going to advance him toward that," says Ben Yaakov.

Why hasn't an effort been made to find a candidate from outside the ministry?

Avnon: "The Civil Service Commission doesn't allow that."

Who fills in for the cultural attaches?

"Local employees, Israeli or foreign, who have not been trained for this and are not doing this as their only job. At most of the legations abroad, this position is filled by the ambassador's second-in-command. But here, too, culture is just part of a variety of duties he has. He is also the agricultural, scientific, information, academic and diplomatic attache."

Denied applications

At the DCSA every year mountains of applications are received, asking for support for artists and cultural institutions that have been invited abroad, as well as requests for cooperation from the legations abroad. There is no precise list of the proportion of applications that are accepted and those that are refused, but Avnon estimates that every year, about half of the 1,000 requests are turned down.

Anyone who isn't rejected gets a plane ticket to his destination. However, money for cargo, accommodations, public relations and advertising is not part of the deal - "Not even in the rosiest dreams," as Avnon says. "Sometimes invitations are canceled because of a lack of funding to cover shipping expenses."

Who gets support and who doesn't? The order of priorities is based on political, rather than artistic, considerations, depending on which countries the Foreign Ministry wishes to advance relations with. The priorities were established a year and a half ago as part of the reform at the ministry.

"Cultural activity has to serve diplomatic aims," says Avnon in explanation of the logic that guided the reform. "Today China and India, the Scandinavian countries and South Africa are high priorities [see "Favorites" box]. In cases when we refuse, it is a matter of countries that are not on the ministry's list of political priorities."

Nevertheless, there are cases when applications are denied even if they have passed the test of political priorities? Why?

Avnon: "They are disqualified by the Finance Ministry accountants on the grounds of duplication of subsidies. The treasury controls the ministry."

Are there criteria for distributing the tiny budget that remains?

"No, but there is a protocol. After diplomatic priority, preference is given to events of repute and events that transcend borders, like the Cannes Festival, the Venice Biennale, an international book fair."

Missing out

With the aim of spurring the Foreign Ministry into action, a number of directors of cultural institutions recently met with its director general, Aharon Abramovitch, and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni. Among the participants were Prof. Ori Bernstein, Naomi Fortis, Katriel Schory, Noam Semel, Yair Vardi, Gabi Eldor and Renen Schorr. "We told them that culture has to replace hasbara [PR, propaganda]," says Semel, executive director of the Cameri Theater. "The days of official hasbara are over. Livni asked us to go to the Finance Ministry."

"We told them that the Foreign Ministry isn't a partner at all to what is happening with Israeli culture abroad," adds Schory, director of the Israel Film Fund. "We showed them astounding figures. In 2005, 2.5 million tickets to Israeli feature films were sold outside the country. All of our sports teams together didn't reach those numbers. But when it comes to invitations, interest, logistics - the institutions find that they are alone. We said again and again that we are ready to be their most loyal soldiers, if only the DCSA budget could be increased by a significant degree."

In cultural circles there is a feeling that they are missing out on the momentum. The film people often feel frustrated when confronting the representation at festivals abroad of countries like Serbia, Slovakia, Bosnia, Turkey and Iran.

"The area of the Israeli pavilion at the Cannes Festival was 14 square meters, and just six meters away was the Iranian pavilion, with an area of 120 square meters," says Schory. "Even the ayatollahs in Iran have understood what they haven't understood here - that in order to shatter a negative image, it is necessary to invest."

Nili Cohen, director general of the Institute for the Translation of Hebrew Literature, fears that the Israeli momentum abroad will end because eventually foreign publishers will prefer to translate works from other languages.

"It is an accepted thing that countries subsidize translations of their own books through their translation institutes," explains Cohen. "Naturally, when a foreign publisher decides whether to translate a book, he will prefer to choose a book for which there is a promise of generous help. Our institute cannot give a publisher any help, except in cases when we get special aid from the DCSA for this purpose. On our list at the moment are more than 50 books that are waiting for assistance. At the same time, the complaint isn't about the DCSA, which has limited resources, but rather about the government of Israel, which does not attribute importance to this issue.

"At the most recent [book] fair in Beijing, in September 2006, the Dutch came and offered generous subsidies of $5,000 per book, and in that way they succeeded in obtaining impressive achievements," continues Cohen. "We are not able to offer anything at the moment."

The Foreign Ministry's director general and the minister listened and were sympathetic, and according to some of the participants in the meeting on cultural support, there was no argument. "But," says Schory, "has there been any practical move? The answer is no."

Minister Livni does not try to paint the picture in any more cheerful tones: "There is an intolerable gap between what I think ought to be done and the budgetary expression of this," she says. But does the minister intend to act? The answer is not particularly encouraging: "This will be a central issue in my argument with the treasury."

Bookmark to del.icio.us


	Do not panic
	It is ridiculous to claim that Friedmann's proposal undermines the legal system.


	Lucky number seven
	Six Israelis will compete in Beijing for a seventh national Olympic medal.

Today Online


	U.S. university heads slam U.K. boycott of Israeli academe
	Responses: 183


	Israel Harel: Arab war with Israel is over ideology, not territory
	Responses: 208


	Bar Ilan University may discipline prof. who wished officer dead
	Responses: 90


	Israeli government sends conciliatory messages to Syria
	Responses: 53


	Shlomo Shamir: The disobedience of the ultra-Orthodox
	Responses: 31

More Headlines
23:09 IAF helicopter strikes defunct airport in Gaza; no casualties


23:09 Council refuses to recognize West Bank college as University


23:10 Army charges IDF officer over wrongful shooting of Palestinian


21:45 Bar Ilan U. mulls disciplining prof. who wished officer dead


19:47 Court rejects petition to cancel ex-MK's reduced sentence


20:40 Abbas reiterates to Jordanian PM refusal to talk with Hamas


22:00 Labor Court to rule Friday on lifeguard strike planned for weekend


19:17 Polish police analyze tapes of alleged anti-Semitic comments by priest


23:06 Source of pollution causing eye irritations in Haifa area identified


22:41 Last batch of Palestinians stranded in Egypt returns to Gaza Strip