JERUSALEM (JTA) — A female Israeli singer reportedly was asked to halt her performance at the beach in Ashdod in southern Israel because she was wearing a bikini top.

Concert organizers ended the performance Friday at a government –sponsored music festival after she declined to close a shirt she was wearing over the bikini, the Times of Israel reported, citing Israeli news reports.

The free concert by Hanna Goor, a contestant on the Israeli music reality show “A Star is Born” in 2004, was not well attended, according to reports. Goor was in the middle of her second song in a scheduled half-hour performance when she was asked to leave the stage.

“I cannot accept the double standard where people are invited up from the beach to attend a performance but I’m not permitted to perform in a swimsuit,” Goor told a local news website, Ashdodnet, according to the Times of Israel. “It wasn’t a provocation but simply a matter of comfort. It’s summer, it’s hot, and we were at the beach. All over the world there are festivals where artists appear wearing whatever they want.”

“I looked to the side of the stage and saw the organizer waiting with a police officer. I realized then that I don’t want to be a part of this embarrassment. Perhaps if my chest were smaller this wouldn’t have happened,” she told Ynet. “Freedom of expression means I get to dress however I want, and since I wasn’t given a dress code for this performance nobody can tell me what to wear.”

Goor’s performance “did not respect the audience,” the Culture and Sport Ministry said.

The incident comes on the heels of the decision by some 30 French municipalities to ban the burkini, a full-body swimsuit worn by Muslim women, from public beaches. A French court on Friday ruled that the ban is illegal.

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