A three-judge panel of the Supreme Court overruled the censorship board’s ban on the play “Ephraim Returns to the Army” last Thursday and gave the producers a green light to stage it.
The censors had found the play to be critical of the army and offensive to large segments of society. But Justice Aharon Barak ruled that regardless of its artistic merits it could not be banned. “Democracy is tested by the freedom of expression by artists,” he stated.
Justice Yaacov Malz maintained that banning a play was a “sharp and extreme step which should be used only when there is almost total certainly of strongly offending the public.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
