Regev also hit the headlines last month when she threatened to scratch promised funding for the Elmina children's theatre in Jaffa, near Tel Aviv, one of the few artistic projects promoting Jewish-Arab coexistence.
She said the theatre would be punished after it emerged that actor Norman Issa, the theatre's Palestinian co-founder along with his Jewish wife, had refused to perform in a settlement in the occupied West Bank. Regev reversed her decision only after Issa agreed to take part in the touring production.
Ala Hlehel, an award-winning Palestinian author living in Acre, said Netanyahu's government was punishing Palestinian artists first because they presented "an easy target."
"This is just the beginning," he told MEE. "The right wing feels there are no constraints on it now and intends to reinvent the whole cultural landscape to get rid of dissidents and critics of the government, whether they are Arabs or Jews.
"Arabs are easy to attack first because they lack wider support in Israel. But what the right really wants is to dominate public opinion by controlling the media and cultural discourse."
Films must be 'Israeli'The Israeli government has insisted that all film-makers receiving state funding must commit to identifying their movies as "Israeli."
Other high-profile Palestinian film-makers in Israel, such as Hany Abu Assad, have tried to find ways to bypass Israeli controls. His film Omar, nominated last year for an Oscar for best foreign-language film, became the first to be financed exclusively by Palestinian funders.
Nassar, of Radio Ashams, said Israel's goal was to make life as hard as possible for Palestinian artists in Israel. "The message to them is that writers, journalists, intellectuals must keep their heads down, not rock the boat, if they want to survive.
"My fear is that, without jobs or opportunities to create, our artists will emigrate. And that will further threaten our identity as Palestinians."
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