Israeli singer Hanna Goor had to halt her performance at an Ashdod beach after refusing to close a shirt she was wearing over her bikini top.
Concert organizers ended the Aug. 26 free performance at a government-sponsored music festival in southern Israel after Goor declined the request, the Times of Israel reported, citing Israeli news reports.
Goor, a contestant on the Israeli music reality show “A Star is Born” in 2004, was in the middle of her second song in a scheduled half-hour performance when she was asked to leave the stage.
“I cannot accept the double standard where people are invited up from the beach to attend a performance but I’m not permitted to perform in a swimsuit,” Goor told a local news website, Ashdodnet, according to the Times of Israel. “It wasn’t a provocation but simply a matter of comfort. It’s summer, it’s hot and we were at the beach. All over the world there are festivals where artists appear wearing whatever they want.
She told Ynet: “Perhaps if my chest were smaller, this wouldn’t have happened.”
Goor’s performance “did not respect the audience,” the Culture and Sport Ministry said.
The incident occurred the same day a French court ruled illegal the decision by some 30 French municipalities to ban the burkini, a full-body swimsuit worn by Muslim women seeking modesty, on public beaches. — jta