Social Equality Minister Meirav Cohen ordered the Authority for the Advancement of Women to take down a video from the section of its website devoted to teenage education because it features rapper Tamer Nafar, who identifies as a Palestinian.
Cohen ordered the video’s removal in response to complaints by right-wing group Btsalmo and the Srugim website. The video was produced as part of a campaign combatting violence against women.
“Nafar is a violent man, who encourages hate,” Btsalmo wrote in a letter to Cohen. The group asserted that Nafar’s song “Who’s a Terrorist” encourages Arab youth not to serve in the Israel Defense Forces or complete civilain national service.
“A campaign against violence is a wonderful idea, but not with a man who supports violence, a man who incites hatred and incitement and evil and polarization. He should be removed from the campaign and replaced by someone normal. Thank God, there are enough Israeli Arabs who support peace,” the letter said.
The video was produced by the nonprofit group Itach Ma’aki – Women Lawyers for Social Justice as part of a campaign called “Men Speak.” The campaign appears as part of the authority’s “Gender Thinking Kit.” In addition to Nafar, the video features social entrepreneur Fadi Elobra and social worker Ibrahim Aghbariyya.
The three speakers discuss masculinity, patriarchy and the role of violence in their lives. The website where the video appears encourages involvement and activism to reduce gender gaps and raise awareness of gender violence and gender tracking in education.
Cohen’s office provided Haaretz with her response to the appeal, which said: “We investigated the matter and were informed that the video in question is an old one that had been independently produced and exists on YouTube. The ministry did not pay for it. In any event, we have asked the Authority for the Advancement of Women not to provide a link to the video in order not to give a platform to people whose words incite violence.”
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Ela Alon, Itach Ma’aki’s executive director, said Cohen had “caved” and that her order to remove the video “strengthens the voice of the extreme right and silences important voices against violence in Arab society.”
“The fact that social issues are seen through a political lens is worrying and outrageous, to say the least,” she said, adding that Nafar was an “international artist and creator who works in an extraordinary and non-trivial way to promote social issues in general, particularly in Arab society. His ability to influence youth is among the strongest in Arab society.”
Last October, Labor, Social Affairs and Social Services Minister Meir Cohen lowered the profile of a campaign led by Nafar that aids child survivors of sexual abuse. Following an appeal by the far-right lawmaker Itamar Ben Gvir, the minister ordered that the campaign not be given a prominent place in ministry web pages.
In 2019, the Umm al-Fahm municipality canceled a concert by Nafar saying “his content was not in line with accepted norms.” A year before that, the Tel Hai Academic College Student Union canceled a performance of his saying it preferred to focus on “local artists.”
“I made a video that speaks out about sexual violence against children, and racists jumped to attack it. I made a video to promote equality for women and they’re attacking me again,” Nafar said. “Tomorrow, I’ll drop a new song that speaks out against violence in Arab society – if I change the lyrics to promote violence, will they be happy then?”
