Israel's High Court canceled May 13 the bonus system put in place by Culture Minister Miri Regev for artists performing in West Bank settlements.
The ruling came on the Likud member's next-to-last day on the job; on May 14, the new national-unity government is to be sworn in and the culture portfolio is to go to a Blue and White member under the deal struck April 20 between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Blue and White leader Benny Gantz. It was unclear May 13 whether Regev would occupy another Cabinet post in the new government.
The 2-1 High Court ruling came in response to a petition filed in 2016 by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel. The group contested rules put into place by Regev to offer preferential treatment and bonuses to artists and cultural institutions who performed in settlements.
The justices rejected Regev’s claim that incentives to artists performing in settlements were part of a Culture Ministry plan to encourage cultural performances in the periphery. “The justification for the alleged inequality in incentives for performances in the West Bank is that the area is part of the ‘cultural periphery’ and that institutions perform there less frequently than in other areas of the periphery. I looked at the arguments and data presented, and I found no evidence to support that argument,” wrote Justice Hanan Melcer.
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