ABSTRACT
Chapter 6 studies the shaming of the nation by suicide media-events that unravel the gender, religious, and racial discrimination, as well as cultural invisibility and neglect of citizens that felt betrayed by the lack of civil protection and assurances. The Israeli “nation” as a plural ethnonational collective often stands in these social dramas as a culprit for not always guaranteeing the incorporation of specific publics within the national cultural pantheon. The rights of secular Jews, the ethnic visibility of Mizrachi children and artists, the relevance of cultural icons, and the expected support of aging musicians are publicly challenged by the suicide media-events discussed here. Cultural visibility and inclusivity are entitlements in Israel that are equal, in strength and emotional demand, to human rights, but when they are unfulfilled, the legitimation of the ethnonation as a whole is blamed due to the tacit foundational covenant that is supposed to avail for everyone in almost unlimited terms.
