Jerusalem's ultra-Orthodox deputy mayor vowed last night that the Eurovision Song Contest, won on Saturday by an Israeli transsexual, would not take place in his city next year because he considered it a shameful event best left "to the gentiles".
Dana International, singing the anthem Diva, narrowly won Saturday's contest - the third time Israel has been victorious in the event. The singer, reprising the song after the votes were in, adlibbed that she would "see you all in Jerusalem next year". Presenter Terry Wogan signed off by saying: "We look forward to gathering next year in Israel." And Jerusalem's mayor, Mr Ehud Olmert, has said he is interested in playing host to the contest.
But his deputy, Mr Haim Miller, an ultra-Orthodox politician who forced the cancellation of a risque dance routine from last week's Israeli 50th anniversary gala, was adamant the competition would not come to Israel. "There is no chance that the event will take place in Jerusalem," he said. "It should not take place in the Holy Land at all."
Several ultra-Orthodox politicians yesterday termed Dana's success "shameful" to Israel and to Judaism. Mr Shlomo Benizri, a Knesset member from the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, branded the singer, who was born Yaron Cohen and underwent a sex-change operation five years ago, "a pervert", adding: "He's not a she, he's a he . . . If you stick a tail on a man and put whiskers on him, does he become a cat?"
Late on Saturday night, crowds had gathered in Tel Aviv's Rabin Square to demonstrate against the intensifying efforts by Orthodox politicians to impose their conservative lifestyle on the nation. It just so happened, however, that the tail-end of the Saturday rally coincided with voting in the Eurovision Song Contest.
As the voters of Macedonia confirmed that Diva, an anthem of praise to powerful women, was Europe's winning song, secular Tel Aviv went wild. The crowd in Rabin Square swelled to thousands.
Locals draped themselves in the national flag in a kind of alternative jubilee celebration. Homosexuals kissed each other with relish for the cameras. A group of drag queens, brandishing red and yellow boas, staged an impromptu homage to their idol in Birmingham.