Woman At Nudist Resort Told To Stop Breastfeeding In Public

Guests had mixed reactions to the episode.

Kibbutz Ein B’gadim, Israel, March 27 – A mother nursing her baby at this naturist facility on the Mediterranean was confronted by representatives of the administration for doing so in full view of passersby, local sources reported Sunday.

Visitors at the resort reported that early in the afternoon, a vacationing mother began to give her son one of several afternoon feeds, but within two minutes, a woman from the kibbutz office approached and informed her that breastfeeding in public was against the community’s rules. After several minutes of heated exchange between the two women, bystanders said, the mother, with her child still attached, moved to a more enclosed area of the site to continue the feed.

Tiv Oni, 40, a vacationer at Ein B’gadim, surmised that someone who objected to the display must have quickly alerted the staff for the response to come so swiftly. “It couldn’t have been more than a couple of minutes between when the lady started nursing and when someone came out to make her stop,” he recalled. “It must have really, really, bothered someone to have her doing such a thing in public like that.”

A spokeswoman for Ein B’gadim told reporters the incident had concluded satisfactorily. “A visitor informed the administration that, in violation of the community’s rules, someone was breastfeeding a child in full view of everyone, which violates our standards of dignity and modesty,” explained Hava Noshaim, who currently holds the rotating position of kibbutz secretary. “Once we articulated the policy to the visitor who was nursing her child, she agreed to continue doing so in a more private part of our grounds.” The identity of the mother has yet to be ascertained.

Other guests had mixed reactions to the episode. “A nursing mother should be allowed to breastfeed her child anywhere,” insisted Ofer Kreinautlaud, 45. “It’s not sexual, and I wish these puritans would stop seeing suggestiveness in one of the most wholesome phenomena in the world.”

“I think the administration did the right thing,” argued Hava Ball, 49, who visits Ein B’gadim with her husband at least once a year. “Some of us, especially the older folks, remember when our society hewed to certain standards of modesty. You never used to see such a thing. Youngsters today, you never know what they’ve been raised to do. I’m constantly shocked by behavior that used to be considered downright rude, but people just go about their business when it happens as if nothing untoward is going on. I’m glad at least this place has its priorities straight.”