Slippery Slope

Following the advice of the Attorney General, Yehuda Weinstein, Minister of Defence Ehud Barak instructed GOC Central Command Maj.-Gen. Nitzan Alon to officially recognize the Ariel University Center of Samaria as a full-fledged university. (Ynetnews)

(Hebrew – Ynet)

Approximately 20 reserve soldiers from an Engineering battalion who are stationed near the settlement of Ariel, in the Samaria region of the West Bank, claim that they are left without a proper food supply and forced to rely on food they purchase themselves.  In addition, they were not supplied with cooking utensils because their post does not have a Kashrut [?] inspector.

(Hebrew)

An Ort  high-school teacher in Ariel told her class that she “personally cannot stand homos.”  A student asked her to apologize at the end of class, but even though the teacher promised she would discuss it in class she did not apologize.

(Hebrew)

The Berl College Administration announced that this year, the challenge learning students will have their final project at the Ariel College Challenge Learning facility. Of approximately 30 students studying this course this year, ten announced that they have no intention of having the activity in that city, since it is on the other side of the Green Line. Additional students joined them, declaring that they would not have the project in Ariel, out of solidarity with their friends. (Hebrew)

Actor and screenwriter Asaf Harel said in an interview that he would like to be able to boycott Ariel on television, too. He says that “our audience does not exactly live in the settlements. It’s not that we’d hurt our audience, it’s an audience which already has its culture stuck somewhere between the Bible and a rifle.” YESHA Council chair Dani Dayan said in response that “apparently there is no great difference between the skinheads who roam Vienna and Berlin and the skinheads on Israeli television.” (Hebrew)

The “Yisrael Sheli” [my Israel] organization has called upon the Mizrahi-Tfahot bank to dismiss actor Dvir Benedek from its ad campaign, following his statement against Minister of Culture and Sport Limor Livant, who criticized the artists who objected to performing in Ariel. (Hebrew)

During the opening ceremony of the Ariel Culture Hall, the mayor, Ron Nahman, said (Hebrew) “it is not surprising that the first play comes from Be’er Sheva, the city of Our Father Abraham, and not from Tel Aviv, the city of the Philistines”. Present at the ceremony were the Minister of Education and Sport, Limor Livnat, and MKs Danny Danon and Miri Regev.

The planning of a new neighbourhood, containing 800 housing units in western Ariel has begun (Hebrew) a month ago, and all that is required for the beginning of building is the approval of the city’s planning and building committee, which supports the venture.

Limor Livnat, Israel’s Minister for Culture, announced that she will act to prevent support of any theater that refuses to perform in Israeli territory, including the Occupied Territories. According to Livnat, “we are a democratic country and artists have the right to express protest, but it is not their right to boycott the citizens of the State of Israel, and we will act to require cultural institutions to perform throughout the entire country.” (Hebrew)