In response to the emergency gathering of hundreds of left-wing artists earlier this week in Jaffa, during which actor Oded Kotler gave a speech and Oded Kotler's "Beast Speech," an artists' gathering will be held in Jerusalem today (Tuesday) that will call for creating a unifying, not divisive, culture.
The event will be attended by dozens of singers, actors, directors, theater and television personalities, who call for culture not to be used as a tool to clash between populations in the State of Israel and demand more investment in Jewish-Israeli culture.
Singer and songwriter Yishai Lapidot, who is behind the organization of the conference, told Channel 7: "The decision not to transfer budgets to plays and cultural performances that glorify and classify our enemy is logical. We are Jews first, Israelis then artists.".
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According to him, "There is another art, an art that is ready to understand that culture also needs to be protected. There is no reason why a murderer of an IDF soldier should receive a budget for a play, just as there is no reason in the world that a project about a murderer of the prime minister should receive a budget.".
Lapidot referred to Kotler's "speech of the beasts" and explained that this is how the political positions of the artists and which side of the political map they come from become clear. "I'm actually happy about some of the unfortunate mouthfuls that took off their mask. Oded Kotler crowned the majority of the people as a herd of beasts because we don't think like him. Kotler highlighted that they are a kind of tribe that is sure that there is no one else besides them.".
Lapidot regrets that not all national artists are willing to appear publicly at the gathering to be held this afternoon in the capital. "We are the transparent artists who until now have been afraid to speak out, people want to align themselves with the Tel Aviv bubble. We, the organizers of the event, really had a kind of disappointment, we reached out to well-known artists - some with kippahs on their heads who told us 'well done' but they will only support us from afar," Lapidot tells Channel 7.
'"It's really sad. We still hope that we will be able to break the glass ceiling and allow the Jewish-Zionist who is also an artist to express himself courageously.".
