Elder of Ziyon’s Varda Epstein interviewed Shamai (“Shai”) Glick of Btsalmo. We have written here about Btsalmo before.
Here is an excerpt:
Varda Epstein: Haaretz accuses you of “silencing the left,” and the truth is, they make you sound a bissel meshuga, a little crazy. Is shutting down a poetry reading by Dareen Tatour, for instance, shutting down free speech? Do you regret the article? How would you respond, if you could? (Here’s your chance!)
Shai Glick: As I have already said, incitement and antisemitism are the biggest danger in the world and they hide, today, in a variety of disguises, for example, in films and programs, poems, Facebook, and on YouTube. For that reason, I fight them.
The battlefield today is not within the boundaries we have known in the past, but hidden in plain sight on YouTube and in films. The incitement we find there causes murder, and it is against that, which I fight.
I am proud to censor calls for murder that are framed within poetry, art and culture. In the end, they call for murder, period. In the past few years I have caused dozens of events to be cancelled, events that incite against Israeli soldiers and Israeli citizens. I have had festivals cancelled. I have caused the closure of a variety of venues. And I have made sure that many people will be investigated and imprisoned for incitement and I am proud of that. In my opinion, this is lifesaving. (A partial list of closures I am responsible for includes the Barbur Art Gallery, the Negev Co-Existence Forum, the Acco Festival, Al-Midan Theatre, along with many performances and terror-supporting events.)
See the rest here (I don’t agree with everything).