ISRAEL SHUTTERS JERUSALEM GALLERY OVER ANTI-OCCUPATION PROGRAMMING
Jerusalem’s Barbur Gallery was forced to close last week for organizing an anti-occupation group event after culture minister Miri Regev expressed that the gallery is not permitted to host political programming since it is renting a city-owned building, Nir Hasson and Melanie Stern of Haaretz report.
Breaking the Silence, an Israeli veteran anti-occupation group that works to create dialogue on the reality of life in the occupied territories, was invited to the gallery on Wednesday, February 8, where CEO Yuli Novak spoke about a recently published report detailing anonymous testimonies of soldiers recounting transgressions.
Around two hundred people gathered outside the gallery to protest against its closure while a few dozen right-wing activists protested against the Breaking the Silence group. Police erected barriers between the two parties to prevent the scene from escalating.
“The Barbur Gallery, which is funded from public money, will not constitute a house for Breaking the Silence, an anti-Israel propaganda organization which spreads lies against the State of Israel and IDF fighters,” Regev wrote on her Facebook page.
The city’s legal advisor had called for an expedited hearing on February 8, before the event took place, citing a previous hearing held more than a year ago which determined that the gallery was misusing the space.
Jerusalem mayor Nir Barkat said that the gallery is being evicted for “zoning violations,” not political reasons. “I back the decision of the city’s legal adviser and regret that the organization has chosen to repeatedly violate the city’s provisions regarding the permissible and prohibited use of urban structures,” Barkat said in a statement. “It has no connection to freedom of expression,” he added. “The municipality needs the structure and is actively consulting with representatives of the neighborhood about future use.”
Yossi Havilio, Barbur Gallery’s attorney, said that the programming should be protected by freedom of expression. “They held a hearing a year and three months ago, yesterday Miri Regev writes a letter and suddenly there’s a decision to evict the gallery for other reasons. Can any reasonable person buy this? It’s clear to any sensible person that this decision is political.”
