A statue in the image of Culture and Sports Minister Miri Regev was placed in the plaza outside the Habima Theater in Tel Aviv on Thursday morning, apparently in an act of protest over the so-called "culture loyalty bill" being spearheaded by the minister.
The legislation aims to withhold funding from artistic and cultural projects deemed to be attacking the state of Israel.
The statue, in which a figure representing Regev was dressed in a princess gown and positioned gazing into a mirror, was accompanied by a sign with the words "in the heart of the nation."
Sculptor Itay Zalait, who sculpted the statue, told Channel 12: "If you look at the work, there's a mirror here and a figure that looks like Regev that could also be Cinderella. Everyone can look at it however they want."
"I'd like to invite all the artists who feel they have a message and want to get it out into the public sphere," he added. "I think it's great. The 'loyalty bill' is a sort of brick, and we are seeing a process where a large number of laws are being passed under the radar every few days. This law is a slightly larger brick and therefore we feel it and we are talking about it."
Local authorities directed Zalait to remove the sculpture, giving him a four-hour deadline. He is expected to be fined thousands of shekels.
Last year, a golden statue of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was placed in Rabin Square in the city. That incident also ended in a fine.
Regev, for her part, said of the sculpture: "Thank you Itai Zalait, for placing a mirror in the 'heart of the nation' at Habima plaza. For the past three years I have in fact spent a lot of time holding a mirror to the face of the Israeli cultural world. A mirror that has exposed the exclusion of entire populations and the 'patronage' of those who, until now, have viewed themselves as the 'heart of the nation.' Indeed, the nation, with all its parts, is my mirror. The principles of cultural justice are what I see reflected in the tale of Cinderella and her eternal words, 'Mirror, mirror on the wall, what are the city's ugliest injustices of them all?'"
