In the 1950s and 1960s, Aliza Kashi was one of the most well-known singers in Israel: the lead singer of the Nahal band (“Ya Mashalti”) and the “Bezel Yerok” band (“Hai Tirilei”) who developed a successful solo career in Israel when she won first place at the first singer and chorus festival (1960) with the song “Arab Ba” (and she also performed it in a duet with the singer Shimon Bar) and later delivered another big hit – “Shubach Yunim”, went on an international tour in 1962 and won a recording contract in the USA and Brazil, recorded albums in six languages and represented us with honor at music festivals around the world .
In 1973, at the end of the Yom Kippur War, she was a guest on the television show “Meeting of Artists” and after performing the song “Today” (this one really) uttered a live curse: “A glass of amek for the Arabs”, which caused a stir in our tiny country.
Kashi explained that she thought the microphone was off and that her nephew had been killed in the war about two weeks before in the Golan Heights battle, but the divided opinions in the public and especially the media’s opposition to the spitting (despite her apology) ‘destroyed’ her career, she moved to the US and tried to give interviews to Israeli media .
In the USA she participated in films, recorded albums and performed until she retired about 15 years ago. In the current episode of “Words and Melody” the music researcher Dodi Fatimer, a friend, returned to the story of the 86-year-old Keshi and her great songs on her various stations, to the full story behind the iconic mouth discharge And what are her actions these days?