Yes, the City of Bet Shemesh has hired Eyal Golan to be the main performer at the central party for Yom Haatzmaut.
This is despite his being caught up in two serious legal issues - one of possible pedophilia and rape, as he took advantage of his celebrity status to take advantage of young teenage girls, and the second of some tax evasion charges. He got off easy on the first, despite admissions to the crime, because nobody wanted to press charges (it seems you can have sex with minors, you just cannot marry them). It looks like they might get him on the second charge, as the headlines say he is heading for a plea bargain on that case. Just like all those mafia guys in the USA - they could never get them on racketeering, drugs, prostitution, but they often got them on tax evasion.
So, Bet Shemesh hired Eyal Golan. So did Sderot. So did Haifa, but at least there some city councilman (from Yesh Atid) had the sense to voice some protest about the moral issues of hiring Eyal Golan, and they canceled.
I don't know if hiring Eyal Golan was "throwing a bone" to the secular/traditional half of the city.. of if it is an attempt to make them look bad (the mayor is claiming residents of Old Bet Shemesh wanted Golan) as if they demanded he be brought here to perform, or if they just took advantage of the opportunity to get a top tier celebrity who is now working at dirt cheap rates (127,000 NIS for less than 1 hour of performing). I do wonder if the mayor, Moshe Abutbol, will appear at the celebrations and get up on stage next to Eyal Golan or if he will only go there before or after Golan's performance..
Either way, I would have expected our super-moral city council made up 90% of haredim with the remaining 10% also being religious and quasi-haredi to voice some protest on moral grounds and hire a different performer. By the way, I am also disappointed in the other 9 councilpeople, as I have not heard them say a word about it either - but they are not in the coalition, so their responsibility is a bit lower..
I think a good solution would be to replace Golan with a religious performer - maybe someone like Yeedle Werdyger.
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