Following the publication in "Israel Today": The Minister of Education announced an allocation of NIS 8 million for the basket, which will continue to exist at least until the end of the year

Education Minister Yoav Galant announced tonight (Saturday) that he intends to allocate eight million shekels to the culture basket for 2020, thus preventing the cancellation of the basket at least until the end of the civil year. The intention to cancel the basket was first published in "Israel Today".

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As is well known, the basket was intended to make theater, music, dance and art performances accessible to kindergarten and school children, when the project began as early as the 1980s. Last week, the company announced to the community centers, which is responsible for the project, its cancellation and even sent a summons to all its employees before the dismissal. It should be noted that the cancellation of the basket would also hurt the cultural world in Israel.

In his announcement tonight, Minister Galant wrote on his Twitter account: "Tonight I stopped the abolition of the culture basket in the education system and assumed to allocate eight million shekels for a temporary solution by the end of the 2020 work year," the minister blamed the education committee for the crisis. In the Knesset, which refuses to discuss the issue. "

Minister of Culture and Sports Hili Trooper also addressed the issue and said: "From the moment we learned that a culture basket is about to close, we worked together with all relevant parties to prevent it from closing and I am happy that a solution is found tonight. Culture Basket is an important institution that imparts values ​​of Culture for the children of Israel, culture is too important to give up, especially on days like this. "

Tonight, I stopped the abolition of the culture basket in the education system and assumed that eight million shekels would be allocated for a temporary solution by the end of the 2020 work



year. Yoav Galant (@yoavgallant) August 1, 2020

Following the announcement of the Society for Community Centers last Wednesday, the Forum of Cultural Institutions addressed Avi Wertsman, Chairman of the Society for Experiences, in a firm letter opposing the closure of the project and wrote: "Erasing cultural education at the expense of the entire education system raises great questions The leaders of the company, especially in these days of health, economic and social crisis, the activity of the cultural basket is more important than ever.

"Our position is that this is a puzzling decision that the community center company did not do everything necessary to preserve the project, which is invaluable to the education system and the world of culture. "We call on the community center and its leaders to do everything in their power to prevent the closure and to leave the project intact for the children of Israel," the letter reads.

The Office of the Minister of Culture and Sports added at the time: "We were sorry to hear that it was decided to stop the culture basket that provides many artists and also instills important cultural values ​​for Israeli children. It is important to emphasize that the responsibility and budgeting of a culture basket is not under the Ministry of Culture and Sports. In an attempt to return it immediately. "

When announcing the cancellation, the community center company hung the reason for the cancellation for economic needs and said: "We are proud of the employees of the National Culture Basket Program. These are first-rate professionals in the fields of culture and education, and the program is one of the achievements and successes in exposing all Israeli students, in all sectors, socio-economic clusters and populations to artists and creators.

"However, unfortunately, so far the Ministry of Education has not approved all of the ministry's plans for the coming school year and the community center company is forced to begin layoff proceedings for employees of a national culture basket program and other vital programs to avoid heavy deficits. We hope that before the end of the procedure, the Ministry of Education will approve the budgets and prevent these measures, which are detrimental to the children of Israel. "

Participated in the preparation of the article: Maya Cohen