The Sapphire Prize for Literature passed relatively quietly this year.
There were no angry reactions, petty complaints, threats or objections on social media.
No one came out a buffer this time, kilns passed, against the preferences and choices of the judging panel, nor on the identity of the two winners of the award.
Mazel Tov.
And yet, without anything it is impossible.
So here it is: A message sent to reporters immediately after the announcement at the award ceremony was accompanied by a photo of the winner, Hila Bloom, alongside two personalities.
To the left, the event's sponsor - Mifal HaPais chairman Avigdor Yitzhaki; to the right, and here lay the surprise, stood none other than the Minister of Culture, Hili Trooper.
Some would say that this is the natural place of a Minister of Culture in Israel - in significant events that support and cherish writers and artists.
But a quick look at the photo archive of Sapphire Prize winners for generations reveals an interesting fact: the incumbent minister or culture minister has never been photographed next to the winners, and usually also did not attend the ceremony or carry things there.
For the most part, they were content with a matter-of-fact greeting to the winners on social media.
From time immemorial, the chairman - whether Avigdor Yitzhaki or his predecessor in the role of Uzi Dayan - presented the winner with the award in conjunction with the chairman of the jury, and the traditional photography was done only in the presence of these.
Why was the presence of ministers from past ceremonies absent?
For the simple reason: Mifal Hapayis is a public benefit company, funded by public funds.
This is not a government body that is ministerially subordinate to one minister or another, but de facto the property of each of the citizens of Israel.
Of these, the Sapphire Prize for Literature belongs to the readership.
The money distributed to its winners is money that readers, or other citizens, have invested in legal gambling of the Lottery.
Photographs, certainly those that are distributed to the media as a press release, have significant symbolic power, and they burn consciousness. Politicians know this well. Therefore, we should not dismiss Minister Trooper's presence in a photo circulated this year alongside the winner, by "just honoring the ceremony." This is an appropriation of the prize for political purposes. It is no coincidence that in a post published by Trooper a few days after the ceremony, he wrote: We tried to mention it. " we tried?!
From the side of Mifal Hapayis - this was the second hole around the ceremony this year, after the puzzling choice to hold the event in the central warehouse of the Steimatzky chain in Rosh HaAyin.
The status of the award as a consensus in the world of literature (more or less), has stemmed over the years from the fact that the Lottery has been vigilant and thwarted any attempt to involve another factor in funding or organizing the award, whether commercial or political.
And lo and behold, in one year the organization went over the two levies that outlined its path.
The Ministry of Culture budgets quite a few literary prizes every year.
He has no foothold in the Sapphire Prize, and that's good.
If it was so important for Minister Trooper to show a presence alongside the winners, he could have done so via his Twitter account, or by a tablespoon from the stands.
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