It makes plenty of sense to call Lior Ashkenazi Israel’s current greatest movie star. He stars in “Rabies”, the first Hebrew horror film, and in many high profile cinema works of the past two decades, among them “Walk on Water” and “A Late Marriage” both of which won international praise.
Lior Ashkenazi works hard, really hard. Currently he appears simultaneously in at least three stage plays. While he probably loves the stage, this is no life for a movie star, never mind the country’s biggest one. Here’s Israel’s reality for you: Except for the cream of business moguls, we are all working class. Take a one minute break, and you’re in serious debt.
In the field of arts and entertainment, the struggle is constant. While foreign recording artists got hurt by file sharing and pirated CDs, Israeli musicians, who appeal to a small audience, got nearly destroyed. They are forced to perform ceaselessly to keep an income and put an enormous amount of their energy into self promotion. Government investment in culture is minimal and legislation protecting artists is nonexistant.
This is a tragedy, because modern Hebrew culture is this society’s single greatest achievment. Of all Nobel prizes won by Israelis, we held most dearly the one awarded in 1966 to author S.Y. Agnon, who still appears on the 50 sheqels banknote. Had Agnon lived today, he may have belonged to the tiny group of three or four Israeli authors who aren’t struggling, but only on condition that he tone down his sophisticated use of Hebrew in order to win the book shoppers over.
The field of Hebrew literature is so badly hurt by the current situation that it is literally endangered. Part of the blame belongs to our current Prime-Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. While serving as minister of the treasury, Netanyahu weakened the Antitrust Law (or “Competition Law”) in a way that allowed large retail book chains to buy publishing houses. The two largest chains “Tzomet Sfarim” and “Steimatzki” joined forces with two publishing houses. “Zmora Bitan” and “Keter”, respectively.
These alliances began weakening the smaller players in the field. Since the union between “Keter” and “Steimatzki” broke, a single huge fish remained in the aquarium. “Tzomet Sfarim” is known for offering the public huge discounts (four books for 100 sheqels, etc.) ones that their publishing house can withstand but others can’t. This benefits the public only in the short run. Yes, Currenly books are cheaper, but in the future, their quality will deteriorate, simply because authors, translators and publishers aren’t making any money.
Yes, I don’t mean “little money”. I mean any money. The chains keep enlarging their own share of the books’ prices, which strips all other elements involved in book procution of their income. Having recently handed a manuscript to a small publishing house, I learned that I’m not likely to make more than 1 sheqel per book. The publishing house itself will make about 12 sheqels on avarage from a book that’s published at 84 sheqels. Many historical presses such as “Am Oved” are on the verge of bankrupcy. Keter itself lost millions in the passing year.
The big fish doesn’t care. Why should it? Business is business. The government doesn’t care. The ministerial committee on legislation today once again postponed the vote on a law that would protect authors. It is modeled on a French law and is intended to ensure that at least a few sheqels from each book’s price will go to the author. This law is predicted to be shot down. Money interests are taken to be more important than the preservation of our culture.
All efforts to change this, all petitions, all lobbying, just goes up in smoke. Where once being a writer in this country was a low income profession, now it is reduced to a hobby. Yours truly must write over the weekends, not expecting any monetary reward. Others simply choose to forsake the pen. Unlike lior Ashkenazi, we can’t take to the theatre stage and supplement our income by working at our craft. Yes, we lecture, we teach and work in journalism as authors always had, but none of that is our true calling, and it’s no fun to watch our art being shredded to bits.