Singer calls off performance over IDF protest

Brigadier-General Avi Zamir, head of the Israel Defense Forces' Human Resources Directorate, dislikes draft dodgers. In fact, he dislikes them so much that on Friday he set an ultimatum at an event organized by a bereaved family.

Zamir threatened not to show up at an event in memory of fallen soldier Lior Vishinsky if "Israeli Idol" star Marina Maximilian Blumin gets on the stage and sings.

Lior was killed four years ago along with five other soldiers when their armored personnel carrier exploded at the Philadelphi Route.

Maximilian Blumin, who is a close friend of Lior's sister Dana, was invited to sing at an event in his memory organized by the Cameri Theater and Lior's parents, actors Osnat and Shlomo Vishinsky.

She was scheduled to perform at the theater alongside artists of the likes of Shlomo Bar-Aba and The Givatron, Anat Waxman, Gila Almagor, Avi Kushnir, Ben Artzi, David D'Or, Ohad Hitman, Harel Skaat, Idan Yaniv, Shiri Maimon, Shlomi Shabat and Tal Mosseri.

"Dana invited me to perform there, and naturally I agreed," says Maximilian Blumin. "On the eve of the show I received a phone call from Shlomo Vishinsky, who said that the IDF chief of staff and head of the Human Resources Directorate were pressuring him to call off my performance.

"'All you have to do is say that you want to serve in the army, and everything will be okay,' he told me. I told Vishinsky I do not wish to discuss this issue at all, and that if the IDF chief wants to talk to me I'm certain he knows how to do it."

Much to Maximilian Blumin's surprise, the head of the IDF Human Resources Directorate telephoned her himself. "He told me he understood that I want to join the army. I told him we never discussed it, and the bottom line was that he told me something like 'either you say you're willing to be drafted, or you don't get to perform.'"

'I was legally released from the army'

Maximilian Blumin was unimpressed by the army's offer. "I told them I was a friend of the family and this was unfortunate not only to the IDF but to me as well.

"I explained to the Human Resources Directorate head that I was legally released from the army and was deemed unfit by the IDF itself. He asked me whether I was willing to return, and I asked him if he would like to return to his math classes. Then he said that if I perform they won't show up."

And did you perform eventually?

"I arrived there in the morning and Noam Semel, the Cameri Theater's director-general, explained to me that my participation in the event would cause uproar. Vishinsky even told me they were threatening to cut the theater's budget. It's intimidating.

"So I gave it some thought and decided not to perform. The family has been driven insane as it is."

Shlomo Vishinsky said in response, "It's a shame that Marina didn't perform, and we hope she'll perform next year."

An IDF official said in response, "This was a civil event organized by the Cameri Theater and the Lior Fund. These bodies were responsible for inviting the performers to the event.

"According to the army's policy, IDF officers do not take part in events which include the performances of people who did not serve in the IDF. This policy was made clear to the event's organizers."