Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat took to Facebook on Sunday to defend his record on gender-based discrimination. “Pushing women out of the public sphere in any way is unacceptable to me, and I will continue to fight it,” he wrote.
Barkat said a recent incident in which a woman was reportedly told not to sing during a music festival in the Old City was not something he had agreed to. “We heard about it only after the fact. The decision was not something I agreed with and is unacceptable to me, and I gave orders to ensure it would not happen again,” he said.
Many orthodox Jewish men attempt to avoid watching women sing. The Old City has a large orthodox Jewish population.