The Haifa municipality and its mayor, Yona Yahav, frequently brag about coexistence in the city, terming it a “beacon in the darkness” of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But it now turns out that the Haifa municipality is one of the standard-bearers in the cultural war of gagging and censorship that has been declared against Israeli artists.

Three months ago, the city froze funding for Haifa’s Al-Midan Theater after it staged the drama “A Parallel Time,” based on the life story of Walid Daka, who was convicted of involvement in the kidnapping and murder of soldier Moshe Tamam and has been in jail for 30 years. To this we can now add the recent decision by two other municipal institutions, the Cinematheque and the Tikotin Museum, to bar the screening of films about the Nakba, or “catastrophe,” as Palestinians term the results of Israel’s establishment in 1948.

The Al-Midan incident reflected worrisome conduct by the city, as it stemmed primarily from a capitulation to the nationalist mood. After the freeze in funding to Al-Midan was announced, Yahav set up a committee to examine municipal support for the theater in the future. The committee recommended resuming financial support, because it found nothing wrong with the content of the play itself. But it voiced displeasure with the fact that Al-Midan rents its premises to “controversial” organizations “that don’t always act in the Haifa spirit of understanding and cooperation.”

On July 1, Yahav decided to resume funding the theater. But shortly afterward, representatives of the Likud and Habayit Hayehudi parties on the committee retracted their support of its recommendations. Yahav then changed his own mind and decided that the funding would remain frozen until the city’s legal advisor had examined the issue and until the results of a hearing that the National Council for Culture and the Arts is holding on the theater are known. That hearing is slated to take place this Sunday.

The decision to prevent the screening of the films was another capitulation by Yahav. The Zochrot organization, which organized the festival of short films about the Nakba, asked the Cinematheque – which is owned by Ethos, the municipal arts, culture and sport company (which Yahav also heads) – and the Tikotin Museum, which is owned by the Haifa Museums Corporation, to screen the films in their theaters, after they had already been screened in Tel Aviv. But Zochrot, an Israeli NGO that strives to promote awareness of the Nakba, was turned down over and over on various pretexts. Yet when it applied for permission to use the theaters anonymously, it was told the halls could be rented by anyone and offered several possible dates.

A mayor who was leading his city to true coexistence would have stood like a fortified wall against the campaign to smear the Al-Midan Theater and protected its freedom of expression, thought and artistic creation. He wouldn’t even have considered canceling its funding because it occasionally rented a room to organizations that are operating legally, even if he finds their views unacceptable. A mayor who believes in pluralism also wouldn’t have volunteered to serve as a cultural commissar who encourages nationalist censorship.

Yahav must immediately restore Al-Midan’s funding. He is entitled to conduct any inquiries he wants, but without undermining freedom of expression. He must also ensure that the Nakba film festival takes place in Haifa, so that residents who are interested in doing so can see the films.