MembersBibi and the Exploitation of Art for Political Gain

When a “militant art” scene is used to “educate the people and arm them ideologically”

Netanyahu démonstrations feature exploitation of art for political gain.
Photo: Miriam Alster/Flash90

PHOTO: Artist Itay Zalait proudly presents his artistic display of Netanyahu as a glutinous dictator who is destroying Israel. As we shall see, this is a very mild example of the exploitation of art for political gain. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)

Former IDF Chief of Staff and former Israel Foreign Minister Moshe (Bogie) Yaalon posted a rather bizarre tweet last Sunday: “I recommend the police force of Jerusalem to read Yigal Eilam’s book Carrying Out Orders” (1990). Yaalon was reacting to the police dispersing anti-Netanyahu protestors from Jerusalem’s Paris Square, a short distance from the Prime Minister’s Residence.

This clash, that resulted in 30 detainees, prompted the organizers of the “Crime Minister” protest movement to issue a statement bordering on incitement that read: “The Balfour police … are a bullying political police force that is taking the law into its own hands again. This is a declaration of war on protest and freedom of expression.”

Labeling the Jerusalem Police Department as the “Balfour police” (the Prime Minister’s Residence is on Balfour Street), and therefore as wholly motivated...

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