Topless, on a camel, for peace
Comedian Chelsea Handler is on the campaign trail in Israel; the Free the Nipple campaign, that is
Judah Ari Gross is The Times of Israel's religions and Diaspora affairs correspondent.
Ever the provocateur, professional funnywoman Chelsea Handler enlisted two Zionist assistants during her recent trip to the Jewish state: Israeli flag pasties.
The bestselling author and television presenter landed in Israel on Sunday and has been documenting her visit on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
She’s uploaded pictures of herself at the Western Wall, with a disgruntled, yarmulke-wearing man in the background, and in Old Jaffa “with [her] jugs in [her] jacket.”
On early Thursday morning, despite the Israeli winter chill, Handler took her “jugs” out of her jacket and uploaded a photograph of herself on a camel, topless, with only Israeli flag pasties covering her nipples.
“A Muslim allowed a topless Jew to sit on his camel. And we say we can’t live side by side? I say we try and we can and we will. And, You don’t even have to be topless. L’chaim,” Handler wrote in the Instagram post.
This is not the first time Handler has bared her breasts on the back of a hoofed animal to make a political point. In October 2014 she posted a topless photograph of herself on horseback, recreating Russian leader Vladmir Putin’s famous equestrian photograph in order to make a statement about gender inequality.
She’s one of several celebrity activists for the so-called Free the Nipple campaign, which seeks to apply similar standards to male and female toplessness. Topless photos of hers, among them the Putin reenactment, have been removed by Instagram on several occasions for violating the social media network’s terms of service.
Handler is in Israel to take part in a star-packed fundraiser for the Sheba Medical Center’s Tal Center for Integrative Oncology.
According to Walla Celebs, an Israeli news portal covering celebrity news and gossip, the “Chelsea Lately” host is also taking advantage of her time in the Holy Land to shoot footage for an Israel-based film project. Shooting sites will include Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, according to the report, as well as some well-trod tourist sites.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
