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Jerusalem dress fails to impress

The "Jerusalem of Gold" dress that Culture Minister Miri Regev wore to the Cannes Festival represents yet another populist provocation by right-wing Israeli politicians seeking to inflame nationalistic sentiments.
Israeli Culture Minister Miri Regev wearing a dress featuring the old city of Jerusalem arrives on May 17, 2017 for the screening of the film 'Ismael's Ghosts' (Les Fantomes d'Ismael) during the opening ceremony of the 70th edition of the Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, southern France. / AFP PHOTO / Antonin THUILLIER        (Photo credit should read ANTONIN THUILLIER/AFP/Getty Images)
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Israeli Culture Minister Miri Regev has added another successful act of provocation to her public resume and managed yet again to dominate Israel's media agenda. As she put it, the “Jerusalem of Gold” gown that she wore May 17 on the red carpet at the opening of the 70th Festival de Cannes was intended “to make Jerusalem a topic of discussion.”

For anyone who missed the uproar on social networks and in the traditional media, Regev wrapped herself in an ugly and cumbersome gown with an especially wide hem printed with huge images from Jerusalem, prominently the Temple Mount. She explained that she did so “for the glory of our eternal capital.” As it turned out, this tasteless display in the French resort town, before the eyes of the world, was the result of half a year of brainstorming by Regev's staff on how to use Cannes' international film festival to mark the 50th anniversary of the reunification of Jerusalem in the 1967 Six-Day War.

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