Israeli artist Yigal Tumarkin is currently slated to receive
the Israeli Prize awarded every year on Independence Day of
the State of Israel. Though Tumarkin has expressed himself in
ways that deeply insulted most of the citizenry of Israel at
one time or another, the prize committee decided to award him
anyway. The Movement for Decent Government filed a motion
with the High Court to change the award.
If the High Court searches for a precedent to cancel a
publicly award prize in the State of Israel it will not have
to look far: Yigal Tumarkin himself can serve as an example.
Six years ago Yad Vashem decided not to award him its Zussman
Prize following a Yated Ne'eman report on extreme
remarks Tumarkin had made previously. The prize he had been
slated to receive is designated for Israeli artists "who give
creative expression to the horrors of the Holocaust."
Members of the prize committee had been unaware of Tumarkin's
remarks against the chareidi public and against the Holocaust
itself. Just days before the prize ceremony was scheduled,
disturbing quotes by Tumarkin were printed in Yated
Ne'eman including, "Seeing them [the chareidim] makes one
understand why the Holocaust happened, why Jews are not
liked" -- a remark that led the committee to cancel the
prize.
Chareidi Holocaust survivors were baffled by the thought that
a prize was about to be awarded to an individual who
expressed such harsh, anti-Jewish sentiments. The Yated
Ne'eman report sent storm waves through the media and the
general public. Knesset members from every party were
infuriated and some even threatened to petition the High
Court if the prize was awarded to Tumarkin. Even the
Education Ministry contacted Yad Vashem to request the prize
be cancelled. A group of Holocaust survivors called Dor
Sheini hired a lawyer to demand that Yad Vashem not award the
prize, threatening to petition the High Court.
That same day the Yad Vashem board chairman convened the
Executive Committee which, after long hours of debate,
decided not to award the prize to Tumarkin. "After the
Executive Committee gathered all of the details about Yigal
Tumarkin's remarks, which were made known to Yad Vashem only
recently, and after examining hundreds of requests, the
organization received from a wide segment of the public,
particularly Holocaust survivors, the Executive Committee
decided, following an in-depth and prolonged discussion on
the issue, that after weighing all perspectives there is no
alternative other than to cancel the decision to award him
the Zussman Prize," said the announcement by the Yad Vashem
spokeswoman.
Previously there was a court indictment against Tumarkin for
his extreme remarks. The indictment was only issued after a
delay of several years due repeated efforts by the State
legal system to protect him. Eventually the case was brought
to court more than six years after the remarks were
publicized. When the hearings began Judge David Rosen said he
is instructing the Prosecutor's Office to close the case
without finding the accused guilty for the sole reason that
more than seven years had passed since Tumarkin's original
article was published, and the delay is unconscionable.