Religious singer Eti Ankari announced earlier this week that she was canceling a special performance for women - a performance that was planned as a tribute to the 30th anniversary of her first album - due to legal constraints, due to a law that prevents her from performing only to women.
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""A letter of apology to the women who bought tickets for today's concert at Zappa Jerusalem," Ankari wrote on her Facebook account. "I decided to cancel it.
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""Why? Because I woke up to realize that even though I publicly declare my desire to perform only for women, this will no longer be a purely female performance, because whoever stands in the doorway to protect the artist's private desire to perform only for a female audience will risk being sued for 'violation of individual rights.' Funny and ridiculous, but true.".
She quoted from the law: "This Basic Law aims to protect human dignity and freedom, in order to anchor in the Basic Law the values of the State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state.".
She emphasized that the law "does not allow me to prevent a certain public from entering an event, thereby essentially violating my dignity and freedom to choose to appear only in front of women.".
This morning (Tuesday), the singer explained her move in an interview with Kalman Libeskind and Moav Vardi on Channel 2: "I am an artist in the Land of Israel and I have the right, like any other artist, to address the audience and that it be only for religious women. Not because you are limited, because I am limited. Why am I limited? Because I want to observe the Halacha.".
""The law, which is the law of Moses from Sinai, is not like the private opinion of a person who was born and the Creator created him. I understand that I am Jewish and I want to observe the law. That's all.".
