ISRAEL: Trans Pop Star Dana International Causes Stir With Gay Pride Video

Transgender pop star and 1998 Eurovision winner Dana International has caused a furor in Israel with a video that promoted Tel Aviv Pride, which was yesterday. Via the Times Of Israel:

A video promoting Tel Aviv’s Gay Pride Parade featuring Israeli transsexual star Dana International dancing suggestively in a synagogue in front of children has been taken offline after the parents of one of the youngsters claimed they did not provide consent to participate. The family, believing the video to be part of an “innocent” tourism campaign, complained after seeing it on national TV. The two-minute clip featuring Dana’s new single, “Kids Are Much Fun,” had the singer, decked out in a blond wig and long black dress, posing suggestively as a boy meant to be her son reads from the Torah during his bar mitzvah, a holy Jewish rite of passage. The video was filmed in a Tel Aviv synagogue, using 15 boys who were recruited from a religious school in a nearby suburb. The video’s director, Omer Tobi, said the students were picked by a nephew of Dana’s manager who is the main character in the video. While Tobi said the theme of the video was clear from the outset, the parents of one of the boys said they were misled.

The lyrics of the track, which is in Hebrew, appear to condemn the Israeli government for encouraging families to have as many children as possible. Sample verse: "Procreate twelve, why not eighteen, procreate two scores of kids, God will take care, so will the welfare." The clip below is a mirror of the original and may not last on YouTube.

(Tipped by JMG reader Eric)