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Israel risks becoming ‘Russia 2.0’ with boycotts of artists and athletes

With Israeli artists, writers, and athletes being increasingly excluded from global events, the country risks becoming “isolated and outcast in the world cultural community,” prompting Haaretz columnists to question if Israel is “becoming Russia 2.0.” While Israel has long faced cultural boycotts, the situation has “deteriorated” under the Netanyahu government, the director of the Israel Festival said.

However, Israel may not face the kind of widespread global boycott that Russian artists and athletes did after the Ukraine war, because unlike Russia, governments are not “generally hostile” to Israel which is also “connected to [more] global networks of art and creative endeavor,” one Tel Aviv University researcher told Haaretz. “We are still not in the predicament of Russia, whom many clearly view as an enemy that needs to be boycotted,” he added.