The Association for Civil Rights announces that it will petition the court if the mayor whose mother carries out his threats and removes the works of the artist David Reeb from the Ramat Gan Museum. In an urgent letter sent to the mayor that her mother wrote –
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“We read with great concern the post you uploaded A little while ago, you went to your Facebook page, in which you announced that you had instructed the Ramat Gan Museum of Israeli Art to remove David Riv’s work “Jerusalem, 1998” from the exhibition tomorrow morning. You also mentioned that you are conducting a kind of “referendum” on the subject by marking a heart (remove the work (or smiley) and leave the work – (why not hold a SMS vote among all citizens of the city?), And you ask the surfers to show you a convincing reason why you need to change Your mind. All this despite the reasoned and convincing position of Adv. Roi Barzilai, the deputy mayor and chairman of the museum. This decision is void, For it was given without authority and while severely violating the freedom of artistic expression. “
In an interview with the Vint website, Mayor Shama promised – “The work will be removed tomorrow along with the other works of the artist who chose to threaten us that if we dare to remove the work he will ask to remove all his works “.
Artist David Rib in an interview with the Ramat Gan News website – “First of all, the mayor of Ramat Gan has no authority to determine which works of art will be displayed in the museum, All the more so following a poll he is conducting on Facebook. He is allowed to love the job or not like everyone else. Too bad to waste the opportunity to renovate the Ramat Gan Museum with management and new treasures and a wonderful remodeled building. A lot of people will get hurt just in case the show stops.
I submitted the painting to curator Svetlana Ringold and it was selected along with six other works on display. The painting was made in 1997 according to a photograph by Mickey Kratzman and has been shown twice since. It deals with the sentimentalization of the connection to the Western Wall and its use to justify the takeover of East Jerusalem and the West Bank. And also in the ambiguous nature of Jerusalem, as a wonderful city that is also saturated with tension and conflict.
If this is not self-evident, I have no and have never had any intention of hurting or belittling the feelings of religious Jews. When Mr. Shama Hacohen accuses me of racism it is impudence. On the other hand, the feelings of the inhabitants of the destroyed Mughrabi district, of the inhabitants of Wallaj and Jarrah are no less important to me. Jerusalem is not real estate given to us by God. I hope that all this storm in a cup of tea will pass quickly. “
Adv. Dan Yakir, Legal Adviser of the Association for Civil Rights: “The decision of the mayor of Ramat Gan to order the Ramat Gan Museum to remove the work of the artist David Rib was given without authority and while severely violating the freedom of artistic expression. A cultural institution is by its very nature intended to exercise freedom of expression, and the intervention of local authority elected officials in the artistic content uploaded in an urban cultural institution constitutes an infringement of the institution’s freedom of expression and artistic expression. The mayor must inform the chairman of the museum that he is withdrawing from his decision to remove the work, and we will emphasize that any other decision that will lead to the removal of the work, will force the The Association for Civil Rights to file a petition for the annulment of the decision. “
In an interview with the Vint website, Mayor Shama said: “It is the deputy’s right to think according to his best judgment and conscience, but an absolute majority of city council members and residents, including the mayor, think That it is an extremist offensive work that shames the city while hurting the feelings of many and degrading holy places and entire sectors on the verge of racism. If this work had been in a museum in Poland or Germany, the entire Jewish world and the State of Israel would have shouted and rightly so that it was racism and anti-Semitism. Just to think if in an ultra-Orthodox place there was a Muslim Arab what was the reaction of those whose minds are comfortable with the contempt of our ultra-Orthodox brethren who are compared in the work to feces. The work will be removed tomorrow along with the other works of the artist who chose to threaten us that if we dare to remove the work he will ask to have all his works removed. “
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