We remember

I want to begin with gratitude.

My deepest, most sincere thanks go out to every member of the entertainment and cultural community—artists, creators, and influencers—who dared to speak out, voice dissent, and underscore the critical importance of voting. I know firsthand what you had to endure, the backlash you weathered, and just how rare such resolve is in our fractured reality—especially when cynical actors seize every authentic expression and reduce it to a cheap provocation or a gimmick.

As my colleague Amit Attias, culture correspondent for N12, incisively put it: under the current government, freedom of expression and artistic creation faced an existential threat. If you are asking how you can make a difference—this is precisely how.

This brings me to those who still seek refuge behind that familiar refrain: “I honestly don’t understand anything about politics.”

Let us be unequivocal: systemic failure is not politics. Our lives, our security, and the safety of our families and children are not politics. The survival of our culture and identity is not a matter of Right versus Left. Pleading neutrality while the house burns around us is not balance—it is dangerous denial.

Coming from the entertainment and cultural sector, I know this machinery intimately and painfully. Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic, I have witnessed how, in times of crisis, our entire industry is the first to mobilize—carrying the nation’s morale purely out of goodwill and dedication. Yet the moment support and relief policy are negotiated, artists and creators are invariably pushed to the back of the line. This past year, following the strikes against Iran, I saw this dynamic unfold directly within the halls of the Knesset, serving as a voice for my peers before policymakers. I saw how the apparatus operates, and what it relies on: our collective amnesia. It wagers on us behaving like goldfish with short-term memory.

They count on us to forget. Pause for a moment, and remember what actually transpired here.

Remember who looked past you when it mattered most, who dismissed your worth, and who operated on the calculated assumption that keeps you silent today: the belief that come Election Day, nothing will change, you will remain disregarded, and you will never dare hold them accountable. They banked on you never looking them in the eye to say, “We remember.”

Now is the time to declare: Yes, we do.We remember everything, we are no longer afraid, and this time—we will not stay silent at the ballot box.