"I used to have an honorary exclusion in the Knesset."
Hanan Yuval (Photo: Reuven Castro)
Two days after the storm erupted following Hanan Yuval's cancellation of his appearance in the Knesset, the singer and musician underwent a medical examination yesterday (Monday).
I tell him that health matters blow such storms out of proportion.
"Right", he says to Walla!
Tarbut in the first interview since the storm broke out.
"I am healthy, strong and in good shape, but terribly tired from the last 48 hours. This is something I have never known in my entire life, such a pace, neither in disasters nor in joys. Nothing has come close to what I am going through. This story gained momentum and has already circled the globe three times Ha'aretz. I was approached by the news, the television, the radio, and except for two times when I fell into a trap and was dragged into a few sentences, I was not interviewed by anyone - until this conversation with you. I do not leverage it. I wish I would get ten percent of this attention when I release a song or a record or something ".
Cultural giant Hanan Yuval was invited by producer and director Roni Aviram to appear in the Knesset at an event on the eve of Memorial Day for the IDF Martyrs, which Aviram produces for the Knesset and the Ministry of Defense. As first published in Walla! Culture on Saturday, Yuval responded that he refuses to appear before "these rude people He added that "this is not my Knesset." His words were brought up in one of the protest groups. The main part of Yuval's anger came out against MK Almog Cohen's live video from the plenum in which for many minutes he insulted and humiliated many members of the Knesset, with Shas Chairman Aryeh Deri by his side Laughing at his own words.
Yuval wrote to Aviram: "To this Knesset - of Almog Cohen, of Dodi Amsalem, of her friend Tali Gottlieb, of Galit Distel, of Aryeh Deri who enjoys Almog Cohen's humor, of the Knesset Speaker who, instead of reprimanding the filth, forbids their photography, which they did not know Outside, and more and more - shall I continue?
And there is not even one righteous person who will stand up and cry out.
This is not my Knesset.
To sing there in front of these rude people is to tell a big lie to myself.
There is no shortage of food and there will never be a shortage in the Yuval family home.
I have worked for integrity all my life."
Hanan, people wondered why you actually boycotted the entire Knesset because of
some MKs who behave inappropriately and unbecomingly.
They got a red card, he announced that from now on it is forbidden to take pictures and it is forbidden to broadcast. You see, so that they don't see the disgrace outside. It killed me. It was the line that completely broke me. I said, OK, I can't go in there. Listen, I have appeared in the Knesset many times. I have been dozens of times as a representative of AM and of Eshkolot (the Association of Israeli Artists and the Society for the Performance Rights of Israeli Artists - SB). I come there all the time. And always when I would pass through the gate, I had some kind of honorable exclusion to the Knesset, the so-called dignitaries of the people.
"Slowly it got worse. And I still came there. Robbie Rivlin chose me to be the first artist to perform inside a tabernacle at the opening of the Knesset, I performed near the podium. The first time a singer performed there. I performed in the Knesset on the 30th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War, and Eric Sharon sat in the front row. Everything What I wrote was not political. They associate it with politics, but there is no politics here, there is a basic aesthetic, a culture. In recent weeks, the behavior there is simply repulsive. How can I appear in front of these people? I don't know who will be there in the front row."
"The highlight was his show."
MK Almog Cohen (Photo: Reuven Castro)
Minister Dodi Amsalem demonstrated magnificent cultural ignorance when he wrote about you - "Hanan Yuval, who is this?".
What did you think of it?
"I adopt the sentence of Eric Einstein, who said: 'I don't even ignore him.'"
Amsalem also wrote "I would suggest the organizers bring the wonderful singer and composer Kobi Peretz to sing us the song 'We believe, sons of believers, and we have no one to lean on, but our Father in Heaven'."
"They are trying to start a fire. Soon it will be Ashkenazim against Sephardi. Have you gone crazy, say? You have gone completely crazy."
Yuval contacted Kobe Peretz yesterday (Monday) on Facebook and wrote to him: "Dear Kobe, I really appreciate you as a singer, as a creator and as a colleague. I don't know you personally, but I believe that you are a decent and positive person. I want you to know that as long as it depends on me, No one will succeed in a conflict between me and you. No one! I wish you and your whole family health and success."
Peretz, for his part, first responded by saying: "Hanan Yuval is a wonderful singer and one of the most important creators in Israel. I am sorry that he chose to refuse to appear in the Israeli Knesset on the holy day for all of us - the day of remembrance for the martyrs of Israel's systems."
Later, Peretz wrote in a story on his Instagram account: "We are all brothers, regardless of the political opinions of any of us or where our parents came from. Dear Hanan Yuval, I invite you to perform at my upcoming concert, we will sing together and close our hearts."
Did you accept the invitation to sing with Kobi Peretz?
"Yes, I just finished a conversation with him. I'm going to be his guest in the coming month. We talked for a long time, it was a good, nice, loving and friendly conversation. We decided that I would be a guest at his performance at Gray Modi'in on March 21, in two or three songs. He talked to me about life. I remembered that he was my guest in 2004 or 2005 when they did a tribute show for me on Channel One in Jerusalem."
Yossi Tzur, a father who tricked his son into a terrorist attack, criticized you on his Facebook page, and wrote: "The ceremony in the Knesset, Mr. Hanan Yuval, is not a ceremony for the members of the Knesset, the ceremony is in honor and memory of the martyrs who fell for our right to live in our country."
"First of all, I will sing on the eve of Memorial Day somewhere else. I come from a bereaved family. Don't let me be taught about bereavement. My sister was killed, and my mother buried both a daughter and two husbands. This manipulation of bereavement, I don't accept it. I can make a collection of two CDs At least from songs I composed for the fallen at the request of families. More than that, I think that this behavior of Almog Cohen like this is what humiliates the bereaved families. This is what humiliates them. They say: 'The people are the sovereign.' If the people are the sovereign, then I am the people , I am the sovereign, why don't you respect me?".
Soon in a joint performance with Hanan Yuval.
Kobi Peretz (Photo: Sharon Rabivo)
Another step up in the affair occurred when the Mata Binyamin Regional Council informed Yuval that it was canceling his appearance that was planned to take place at the Psagot Winery on the upcoming Independence Day.
"The cultural coordinator informed my promoter that she received an order from those in charge in the regional council to cancel," said Yuval to Walla!
culture.
The spokesman for the Meta Binyamin Regional Council, Yehuda Amarni, refused to comment.
Are you afraid that this will lead to a wave of cancellations or on the contrary - to an increase in demand for your performances?
"I'm not afraid of anything. If there are more cancellations - everything is fine. On the other hand, people call me and tell me - we want you to come to us. Listen, I'm already retired. I can also sit cross-legged and not work. No one will hurt me. No One. I have enough. Everything is fine. Lots and lots of people from the block and from the area there write to me that they are angry, want me to come and are looking for a way. Who did they attack? Hanan Yuval, the man who works all his life for reconciliation. Who appears to religious people, to Mizrahim, bring it to me Another one like that. I have an Israeli Guinness record for my collaborations. There isn't another one like it. They came down on me? So I tell them what my mother would say: let them be healthy, that's all."
What other harsh reviews have you received?
"Someone responded to me, 'Ya Hantarish, let me buy your house before you leave'. So I blocked him. Then he wrote to me from another phone, 'These leftists are just blocking, go Kibinimet'. Do you understand what level? I told him, well done to Level , and I blocked him too. Then someone else wrote to me, 'You're a Maafan singer'. (Laughs). May he be healthy. I don't answer that, I don't respond, everything is fine. By the way, he has the right to think that I'm a Maafan singer, that's perfectly fine. I'm not Loved by everyone. Everything is good. I was not offended."
In the face of these reactions, many supported Yuval, including former Prime Minister and opposition leader Yair Lapid, who wrote on Twitter: "In response to Minister Dodi Amsalem's question 'Who is this?'
about Hanan Yuval. So the answer is that this is the man thanks to whom the State of Israel knows Rabbi Karlibach's poems, among them 'Vahar Einino' and 'Israel trusts in Hashem.' Rabbi Oduh Abino Chai', he is the one who composed and sang 'Hakal Diborim' with Haim Moshe, and the 'Psoliya' of the prisoner Shushi from Wing 7, and even 'I and Simon and the little Moises.'"
"The absolute majority of the responses I received are wonderful. Only one out of thirty is dirty," says Yuval.
"I received heart-warming messages from the former president of the Supreme Court, Dorit Beinish, from David Grossman, from Rabbi Benny Lau, from Prof. Yosef Klifter who served as president of Tel Aviv University. The top of the top. I don't want to show it off. I simply wrote to Roni Aviram: This is not possible To enter the Knesset. I am also in a financial position where I choose where to perform. There are places that invite me to come and I say no, no, no. It is not suitable for me to perform."
More in Walla!
"I thought I was going to be whole in my country"
To the full article
"Most of the responses I received are wonderful."
Hanan Yuval (Photo: Reuven Castro)
A claim was published in the media according to which you allegedly refused to appear at an event in the Knesset about three months ago.
"That's a lie. My letter to Roni Aviram that was published - was sent last Friday. A few weeks ago he offered to me and I refused, without arguing too much. After the horror shows this week in the Knesset - I wrote him, in person, what was published. He asked if it was possible to read what I wrote in the hearings of the committee and I answered of course, and I will also read it in front of some friends. It was last Friday and it leaked and exploded."
What do you think about the coup by the government?
"We will not mix these two conversations, I'm sorry. There is no doubt that it is in the background, there is no doubt that it adds fuel to the fire, but I don't want to talk about it now. Everything I wrote about this matter was not political."
Could it be that the abuse you just suffered makes you afraid to speak about political matters or those that involve politics?
"This statement of mine was not political. Show me one person who says that this man, Almog Cohen, is fine. Show me one person. What are we talking about? It's a matter of talking only to people's bodies. Insulting talk."
And in connection with the condemnation of the insulting speech by MKs, Yuval also alludes to the statement of Dodi Amsalem, "the demonstrators with the Rolex". "I am sitting here in my car, it is far from a Mercedes, looking at my watch that cost 150 shekels." In the past you were not afraid to criticize
either About politicians. Thus, for example, in an interview I had with you for Walla! Tarbut three years ago, you expressed anger at Netanyahu and said, among other things: "He said, 'They have forgotten what it is to be Jewish.'
I know in which non-kosher restaurants the rascal ate at my cousin's expense." He asks again: Are you now afraid to say such things following the current persecution?
"I have never been afraid and will never be afraid to speak. I speak the truth. I do not slander. The fact that Netanyahu ate in non-kosher restaurants in New York, at my cousin's expense, is true. I also ate there, in Michelin restaurants, the best there are. But if someone Eating there, he cannot say 'they forgot what it is to be Jewish'. I have not forgotten what it is to be Jewish. I contribute as a Jew and as an Israeli, and do not want to make comparisons."
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