QOTD

I stand 100% behind my husband. I think we don't need to perform there. Not me, as I am not a theater actress, but I think that whatever is over the Green Line is not Israel, and we have nothing to do there. Definitely. Each person has the right to say where he is willing to perform and where not. He is no the slave of the theater.

  -- Melanie Peres, wife of Actor Itay Tiran who participated in the Artists Boycott of Ariel.

I happen to agree with her 100%. Just because you get funding from the government does not mean you lose your ability to make decisions. The government does not suddenly get to decide completely who does what and where. Obviously funding comes with guidelines, but rules cannot be changed in the middle. We accept funding from the US yet remain an independent state and resist pressure (hopefully) when we feel it goes against our national interests. The government funds school systems for minorities and sectoral groups, and allows them certain freedoms of teaching their own cultures and curriculum without dictating, for the most part, what can and cannot be said. And the same should be true for the artists.