Lapid unconcerned with shoe-throwing

Finance Minister calmly says "Young artists are supposed to be rejectionist and anti-establishment."

By GIL STERN STERN HOFFMAN
Yair Lapid 370 (photo credit: LAHAV HARKOV)
Yair Lapid 370
(photo credit: LAHAV HARKOV)
Finance Minister Yair Lapid defended a museum exhibit that encourages visitors to throw shoes at a picture of his face, in his weekly email message that he sent to his supporters over the weekend.
The Ein Harod Artist Village Museum, south of Haifa, is currently featuring an exhibit by Netanya-born sculptor Dror Karta that protests Lapid’s policies, including a raise in taxes on alcohol. The visitors are told that if they succeed in hitting Lapid’s face with their shoes, they will receive a free shot of arak if they are adults and lemonade if they are children.
“I appreciate all the people who complained when they heard about the museum where shoes are being thrown at my picture, but I don’t think anything should be done about it,” Lapid wrote his supporters. “Freedom of expression is much more important than my personal honor, and I support the artist’s right to attack me. Young artists are supposed to be rejectionist and anti-establishment. Our role [in Yesh Atid] is to work and change things.”
In the message to his supporters, Lapid defended his policies, including lowering National Insurance Institute allotments given to families with children.
He said the decision fulfilled a campaign promise, much like electoral reform initiatives and drafting yeshiva students, which are currently being legislated.
“We have proven that campaign promises can be kept in a way no one thought was possible before,” Lapid wrote. “But that won’t prevent our opponents to shout that we are not keeping promises. We also learned that no one, no matter how cynical and doubting, can sell us anymore that a group of people who believe in something with all their hearts cannot make real changes.”
Lapid explained in the letter how his initiatives would help low-income earners, working single mothers and Holocaust survivors.