Transsexual pop singer proves too unorthodox
By Anton La Guardia in Jerusalem
Dana was named Yaron Cohen until a sex-change operation in 1993, but now she has long black hair and heavy make-up, and wears revealing low-cut dresses. The selection committee appointed by the Israel Broadcasting Authority is hoping that Dana’s flamboyant act will catch the imagination of the judges at the contest in Birmingham next May and bring the prize to Israel after many years of disappointment.
But members of Israel’s powerful ultra-orthodox Shas party are outraged. Gaby Butbul, the Shas representative on the broadcasting authority’s board said he would try to reverse the decision and pick a “consensus” candidate.
Rabbi Shlomo Ben-Izri, the Shas deputy Health Minister, said: “The choice is disgraceful for me as a Jew. The Jewish people have always been a light unto the nations. They will now be a darkness unto the nations. Everyone abroad will say: ’Look at those Jews and what they are sending to perform, some kind of crossbreed’. Dana is an abomination. Even in Sodom there was nothing like it.”
But Ofer Nissim, the singer’s manager, was unmoved by the objections. “We are aware of the fact that there will be specific sectors that will express opposition, but I believe the broadcasting authority will give us all the support we need,” he told the Hebrew daily Maariv.
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