Rashef Levy at the emergency conference to save the Public Broadcasting Corporation, TSVTA, January 25, 2023 (stills: Nadav Margalit, video: Dotan Guetta)
About a thousand creators and employees of the television industry came this morning (Wednesday) to a protest conference at the TVTA halls in Tel Aviv against Communications Minister Shlomo Karai's plan to widely cut the budget of the public broadcasting corporation here, in an amount estimated at hundreds of millions of shekels.
At the end of the conference, the protestors went on a protest march in the direction of the government building, and, among other things, blocked traffic on Kaplan Street in the city.
One of the most powerful moments at the conference was the speech of the creator and actor Rashef Levy, whose series he co-created, wrote and starred in "Carthage" was recently released at the corporation here.
Levy spoke, among other things, about the importance of public broadcasting that takes care of quality and is not motivated by commercialism and political interests, clarified the difference between it and the other broadcasting bodies (our industry is controlled by the Coca-Cola company and billionaires. Try offering Keshet a series about a boy who drank too much Coke and developed type 2 diabetes) ), emphasized how much the corporation is making a good name for Israel in the world ("It's better that our face be an excellent actress like Niv Sultan and not Israel's new Minister of Information") and groaned with strong satire - what he thinks the corporation will look like if the politicians control it ("It will show series like 'Kashiyosi Hamir Jagger' and 'The Good Doctor - Baruch Goldstein').
At the end of his remarks, Levy said: "I am sure that the people will not let the most glorious and successful achievement of Bibi Netanyahu - the establishment of the corporation - fall."
Here are the full things he said (watch the video version above):
Rashef Levy (Photo: Reuven Castro)
"All over the world, in every civilized country, there is public broadcasting that makes sure to produce quality content. It happens in England with the BBC, it happens in France, it happens in Germany, it happens everywhere normally. And it's not that these countries feel sorry for their creators. They do the It's because they're all afraid of American cultural colonialism. If we don't produce Israeli series, all our children will see will be American material. We'll curse in English, dream in English, our cultural heroes will be Spider-Man, Ant-Man, the Green Giant, and a zebra speaking with an Afro-American accent from the Bronx. In time In short, we will all open this thing that scares our government the most - we will all have a non-Jewish identity. We will start celebrating Thanksgiving and Christmas. Even the Americans understand the limitations of the free market and they also have public broadcasting programs, both on radio and on television."
"Our culture is the thing that defines us more than anything else, and the TV drama and comedy is the highlight of the culture. It is exposed to millions of people. Even the ultra-Orthodox have a non-kosher phone at home and they watch the corporation's series in the bathroom. This is the truth and it is lovely. The daughter of the Adamo "R. Makotz died for Zahva from 'Kupa Rastih'.
Yankee Deri sees 'the selector' and it reminds him of father.
Series are not supposed to glorify the government or the judges or the IDF soldiers. Series are supposed to entertain, make us laugh, be interesting, be exciting, make us think. That's what good series do. Not mine - other people's. I tried - Hagai Levi succeeded Sakhtain On him, really. Levi is Levi."
The emergency conference to save the Public Broadcasting Corporation, TSVTA, January 25, 2023 (Photo: Nadav Margalit)
"The Israeli series are distributed all over the world and improve Israel's status. People who see 'Tehran' on Apple TV - see the smart, interesting, sophisticated Israel. It is better that our face be an excellent actress like Niv Sultan and not Israel's new information minister, who explains excellently to everyone And who already agrees with her. And anyone who doesn't agree with her moves in his chair uncomfortably, that's the truth."
"Our industry is controlled by the Coca-Cola Company, a billionaire named Len Blavatnik, a billionaire named Mirilashvili and a billionaire named Patrick Darhy. Each of them controls the content they produce, some of them also have an agenda. Try offering Keshet a series about a boy who drank too much Coke and got type 1 diabetes 2 and now trying to quit sugar with Samo in the lead role. Let's see if it works for you."
"No Israeli media body has produced a drama without the regulation that forces them to do it. Even so, the previous and current government were negligent and they released Cellcom and Partner from original productions, which is the mother of all sins. This is one of the things that hurt us the most. The corporation that was established actually saved the industry from complete destruction The corporation that is not under the control of politicians has been creating the most important and largest Israeli series in recent years. Those who are trying to eliminate them do not care about Israeli culture. They say they want to create a fund that will produce series. These series will be produced by those close to the government. This is what they also said in the talks Privacy. That's what they say in the media. It will be corruption like it was in Mapai's days, only those close to the government get budgets."
More in Walla!
The television industry at an emergency conference: "The threat to the corporation is a war against the public"
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Reshef Levy in the series "Carthage" (Photo: Courtesy of Kaan 11)
"And if you are curious to know what the drama of the people of Channel 14 will look like, which will surprisingly win the tender soon, I received some of the scripts and synopses:"
"The series 'When Yossi converted Jagger' - about a successful conversion treatment that Assi Ezer undergoes who becomes in front of the cameras from Icon Gay for a kinky and straight man; the series 'The Story of a Champion' about Rehabam Zeev Gandhi - the story of Anes Habib, written and directed by Hanan Goldblatt; the series 'Moshe Dayan - Pirates of the Caribbean' - Dayan is presented as the father of the year and robs antiquities with a rag. In the first episode, he is Vasi Dayan not We see eye to eye; 'The Good Doctor - Baruch Goldstein' - his rise, rare medical cases he treated, until the exciting end where he is killed in the middle of an attack in which he shoots innocent people. Screenplay and direction: The Shadow; 'Tehran' - season 4, will be filmed of course In Tel Aviv because all the women will be wearing veils in two years anyway."
"After the government changes in the next elections, if it happens, when the left comes to power and controls the budgets, even then the series will be dictated by politicians: Merav Michaeli will give the green light to the series 'HE, SHE, IT' - in which all the characters speak to each other in all forms of Hebrew inflection; The film 'Janin Janin' will be expanded into a series; 'Nakba 2' - this time deporting the Jews; 'Carpool Karaoke with Tali Fahima' - drives Zacharia Zabeidi in Israel and sings songs of terrorists.
" "Every time when politicians interfere in the content of Artists only bad things happen.
It doesn't matter if it's left, right, religious or vegan.
Let the culture run, succeed and fail in the hands of artists, who put their life, their heart and their blood on the screen.
That's how it should be.
" "I am sure that the people will not let the most glorious and successful achievement of Bibi Netanyahu - the establishment of the corporation - fall."
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