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Boycott Eurovision Israel 2019
We are calling on the BBC, songwriters and performers to withdraw from the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest hosted by Israel, to avoid being complicit in Israel's ongoing violations of Palestinian human rights.
Just days after Israel's Eurovision win, Israeli forces massacred 62 Palestinians in Gaza, including six children, as they demonstrated for freedom and refugee rights. Since the Great Return March protests began on March 30th 2018, at least 205 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in the besieged Gaza Strip. More than 18,000 others have been injured, including thousands shot with live fire.
Israeli lawmakers recently formalised apartheid in Israel's basic laws, with the “Jewish nation state law” giving the system of racial discrimination against Palestinians a constitutional foundation. Meanwhile, Israel's apartheid regime works to present Israel's “prettier face” by art-washing its decades-old oppression and dispossession of Palestinians.
Latest news and events
Dave Randall and his band Slovo, released to song ‘Not my Kinda Party’ to call for a boycott of Eurovision Israel 2019! Check it out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouibGAgONVQ&t=16s
Cultural Boycott
Israel overtly uses arts and culture to whitewash or justify its apartheid regime over the Palestinian people. Just as South African anti-apartheid activists had called on cultural institutions and artists to culturally boycott South Africa, PSC supports The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) urging international cultural workers and institutions to boycott Israeli apartheid. The call for a cultural boycott of Israel is part of the call from over 180 Palestinian civil society organisations which calls on the international community to Boycott, Divest and Sanction (BDS) Israel as a peaceful means to urge Israel to comply with international law and the basic principle of human rights.
Inspired by the South African anti-apartheid movement, the Palestinian BDS call urges nonviolent pressure on Israel until it complies with international law by meeting three demands:
- Israel to end their colonisation and occupation of all Palestinian land occupied in June 1967, to dismantle the apartheid wall and to lift the siege of Gaza.
- Recognising the fundamental rights for Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality.
- Respecting, protecting and promoting the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes.
London Palestine Action holds protest: "Queers & Allies for Boycotting Eurovision in Apartheid Israel!"
London Palestine Action held a creative protest outside Netta Barzilia’s concert at gay club Heaven featuring music, dabke and protest songs over gay anthems.
London Palestine Action: “Netta Barzilai won the Eurovision contest in 2018 as a representative of the Israeli state. She continues to act as a cultural ambassador for Israel’s regime of occupation and apartheid and is actively promoting the Eurovision competition, which is to be held in Israel next year.
As queers and allies, we say no to the pinkwashing and artwashing of Israel’s crimes, no to Netta’s whitewashing of Israel’s crimes, and no to Eurovision in apartheid Israel.”
BBC protest: Boycott Eurovision Israel 2019
We called a protest outside the BBC HQ on December 1st to call on the UK broadcaster to withdraw from the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest hosted by Israel, to avoid being complicit in Israel’s ongoing violations of Palestinian human rights. The protest was co-organised by Stop The War Coalition and Palestinian Forum UK, supported by Friends of AL-Aqsa (FOA).
A range of high profile speakers from various backgrounds spoke out urging the BBC to Boycott Eurovision Israel 2019 in support of Palestinian human rights.
The UN Security Council has repeatedly affirmed that Israel’s settlement enterprise constitutes a “flagrant violation” of international law and has “no legal validity,” and has rejected Israel’s annexation of Jerusalem as “illegal” and “as null and void.” The European Union also has a long-standing policy that strongly opposes the illegal settlements.