The purpose of the institute is to study Arab art “in the context of Israeli colonialism,” said its head and founder.

By World Israel News Staff 

A new Israeli government-funded institute in the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design is a “hotbed for anti-Zionism,” according to a report issued by the Im Tirtzu watchdog.

The Institute for the Study of Arabic Culture in the Visual Arts, Design and Architecture was established in December 2018 with the goal of “constructing an academic and cultural space focusing on Arab legacy and reform in general, and on the Palestinian culture in particular,” says the watchdog.

However, according to Im Tirtzu, “the true goal of the institute is to encourage Arab students to oppose Israel, to perpetuate the myth of the Nakba, and to undermine coexistence by promoting isolationism.”

Nakba means “catastrophe” in Arabic and is the term used from a Palestinian perspective to refer to Israel’s independence in May 1948.

Im Tirtzu says that its research found “a number of problematic activities of the institute, including an official Bezalel Academy flyer created for the launch of the institute that accused Israel of “caus[ing] a catastrophe (Nakba) against the Palestinians… who have become against their will citizens in a country that is in a state of war against their own people.”

On its Facebook page, the institute also accused Israel of perpetrating a “continuous Nakba,” Im Tirtzu notes.

The report further cites an interview with the founder and head of the institute, Professor Senan Abdelqader, who is quoted as saying that “one of the goals of the institute is to train our youth to be leaders through their consciousness, so that they can continue with their struggle and resistance against the violations of our rights, traditions, and culture.”

Abdelqader is also accused of saying that the purpose of the institute was to study Arab art “in the context of Israeli colonialism.”

Im Tirtzu noted that this activity is being done “at the expense of the taxpayer,” as Bezalel Academy receives some NIS 80 million annually in public funds.

Due to the lack of public information regarding the institute’s funding and activities, Im Tirtzu’s legal division is said to have filed a request under the Freedom of Information Law to Bezalel Academy asking for the relevant information.

According to Im Tirtzu, Bezalel replied that despite issuing official publications marking the launch of the institute, there has not yet been a final decision to establish it, rather only to conduct research on the study of Arab culture in the visual arts, design, and architecture.

Bezalel Academy divulged that for this “research,” it received NIS 50,000 from the Israeli government-sponsored “President’s Fund,” another 150,000 from the Israeli government-funded national lottery, and € 10,000 from the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation in Germany which funds a wide array of far-left NGOs in Israel, Im Tirtzu says.

Shortly after the watchdog made its request, the institute’s Facebook page was apparently taken down. It is unclear why it was removed.

“Once again, we are seeing how taxpayer funds are being used to fuel anti-Zionism in Israeli academia,” said Im Tirtzu CEO Matan Peleg.

“Israeli academia has become an incubator for anti-Zionist and post-Zionist ideas,” he charged, stating that “the time has come for the universities to take responsibility and end this academic groupthink that has resulted from academics hiring only those who they agree with.”

Peleg added: “There is no room in Israeli academia, especially in a prestigious institution like Bezalel, for ‘research’ that promotes the same ideas of ‘struggle’ and ‘resistance’ used by Hamas and Hezbollah.”

The post New Bezalel Academy of Art institute is a ‘hotbed for anti-Zionism,’ report says appeared first on World Israel News.

Bezalel Academy of Art and Design Jerusalem partners with major toymakers to create new designs that could hit the market next year.

By Abigail Klein Leichman, ISRAEL21c

If pigs had wings they could fly, or as Israelis phrase it: If grandmas had wheels they could be cars. This colorful popular expression catapulted a unique toy idea for Kinder Surprise Eggs in the mind of Shanni Levy, an industrial design student at Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem.

“I thought about what can be surprising for children and I decided to use something Kinder often uses – a wheel mechanism that pulls back to power it forward – adding a surprising Israeli touch,” says Levy.

She is one of 20 students in Prof. Yaron Loubaton’s toy design class, which has partnered for the past two years with the Kinder development studio to dream up fun giveaways hiding inside the globally popular chocolate eggs made by Italian company Ferrero.

Kinder is not the only multinational brand looking for fresh ideas in the Jerusalem academy. LEGO’s development studio in Denmark is also tapped into the talent of Bezalel’s industrial design students.

Loubaton tells ISRAEL21c he is always looking for opportunities to bring real clients in contact with the students in his toy design class, which he’s been teaching for 13 years. This provides valuable experience in the process of delivering a product to a customer.

“In 2008 we had a big collaboration with Spin Master, one of the biggest toy companies in North America,” he says. “You really have to have innovative ideas but also understand the DNA of the company and what you can and cannot do with the toy. It’s a big challenge.”

The LEGO collaboration came about through a former Bezalel student, Yoel Mazor, who realized a long-held dream of working for the iconic Danish toy company.

“Two years ago, Yoel convinced his managers to give us a try. We did a successful pilot and then they wanted to do it again. They chose several of our concepts last year and are in the process of choosing some from the class this year,” relates Loubaton.

The collaboration with Kinder was similar. Loubaton broached the proposal about six years ago to a colleague who was then working at Kinder. It took four years to be approved, but after the first trial the company came back for more.

“Kinder has had some collaboration with faculties of design in Europe, but we were told our collaboration was especially successful,” says Loubaton. “They chose eight concepts and paid for them and now we will see if they will go into the candies. There is no guarantee, but this company is exposed to so many concepts and that they chose eight of ours is a big win.”

Testing with groups of children

The development process begins with in-class conceptual design exercises and a personal briefing by company representatives to explain guidelines. For example, Kinder toys are geared to ages 3-8 and must be of a size and shape that does not present a choking hazard.

The design sketches deemed promising enough to get to prototype stage are 3D-printed and tested by groups of children to gauge their responses.

That was Ori Blich’s favorite part of the exercise. “I have two young nieces of exactly the right age for playing with Kinder so I tested my mock-ups on them,” he tells ISRAEL21c.

Blich’s prototypes included little launchers. “My nieces were fighting over them, so I knew it was successful,” he says with a laugh.

“Then we tested our prototypes on children in Yaron’s kibbutz. They moved from station to station and played with the toys. I asked them to tell me what they could imagine jumping off the launcher. It was interesting to see how potential clients imagined the toy.”

Adi Laxaviezer thought up a foldable toy with appeal to consumers beyond the target age range. “I wanted to make something that parents would be excited to get, because adults also like Kinder Eggs,” she explains.

Because of confidentiality rules, Loubaton can’t share specifics about the designs that were accepted by Kinder and LEGO, nor can we show pictures of them.

Even those toy ideas that didn’t make the cut – including Levy’s “grandma on wheels” — provided valuable lessons for the Bezalel students.

“I had three ideas they just didn’t like so three weeks before [the deadline] I had to invent something new,” Shir Yisraeli tells ISRAEL21c.

Kinder liked her prototype butterfly toy but it may require too much manual labor to produce cost-effectively.

“It was really hard,” says Yisraeli. “For the first time you’re not the one to decide what you’re going to design and how you’re going to do it. But it was an amazing experience because we learned how to design something that puts together our own ideas with what the customer requires.”

The post Why toymakers Kinder and LEGO are looking to Israel for ideas appeared first on World Israel News.

Posters by art students seemingly calling for violence against Netanyahu have prompted public debate over the limits of freedom of expression in Israeli society.

Israel’s police launched an investigation Tuesday into a poster bearing the image of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu behind a noose, sparking a debate over the limits of freedom of expression.

The poster, a riff on the “hope” poster from US President Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign, was made by a female Arab student and plastered in the hallway at Jerusalem’s prestigious Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design. It was removed shortly after. The word “hope” in the original poster was replaced by the word “rope.”

On Wednesday, another poster was sketched, showing a naked Netanyahu with a noose around his genitals.

Noam Sharvit, a Justice Ministry spokesman, said the probe, launched after the first poster went viral, will investigate whether the artists were inciting to violence.

‘Artistic Freedom is Not Freedom to Incite’

Minister of Culture Miri Regev wrote on Facebook that “artistic freedom is not freedom to incite,” and called to cut Bezalel’s state funding.

The student who drew the first poster claimed it was an exercise in art. She was released under restrictive conditions after two hours of questioning. Details on her identity have not been cleared for publication.

Some said that such a move would trample on the right to free expression, while acknowledging the poster was in bad taste and even potentially dangerous.

“What disturbs me in this context is the immediate lashing out that calls for denying funding to Bezalel,” Zehava Galon, head of the extreme left-wing Meretz party, told IDF Radio. “We need to leave wide margins for freedom of expression unless it borders on bloodshed.”

However, Opposition leader Isaac Herzog said he “utterly condemn[s] the poster. “Freedom of expression is important and necessary, but there is no place for using it to incite harm against public leaders on the right or the left,” he stated.

Israel has a flourishing arts scene bolstered by world-class academies, galleries and museums.

Last week an artist erected a golden statue of Netanyahu in a central Tel Aviv square that drew a stream of selfie-taking passersby before being toppled by a bystander. The statue was interpreted as criticism of his policies.

Bezalel President Adi Stern, regarding the first poster, claimed its message had been taken out of context. He told IDF Radio that it originally appeared with a poster of former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin with the word “traitor” printed underneath. Such posters were common ahead of Rabin’s 1995 assassination, part of a climate of incitement that many say inspired the killing.

Stern said he interpreted the display as a general commentary on incitement.

However, another student, appalled at the sight of the posters plastered to the wall, turned one of them around and wrote on it: “This is incitement.”

After the second poster was shown on Wednesday – it was later taken down – the youth section of Netanyahu’s Likud Party called for the prestigious art academy to be closed down until incitement against the prime minister could be properly investigated, Channel 2 reported.

By: World Israel News Staff and AP

The post Posters of Netanyahu with noose spark probe, controversy appeared first on World Israel News.