Palestinians call for pressuring broadcasters to immediately commit to withdrawing from the Eurovision Song Contest if genocidal Israel is allowed to participate. Doing otherwise would normalise Israel’s livestreamed genocide and contribute to its destruction of the rule of international law.
The global majority isn’t buying the US-Israel genocidal “peace plan” for besieged Gaza. Thousands of film workers, musicians, and other cultural figures have recently reasserted their commitment to refuse to artwash Israeli apartheid and genocide against Palestinians. The world’s largest documentary festival, IDFA, has recently endorsed the cultural boycott of Israel and its complicit institutions, among hundreds of other European arts institutions and organisations.
Israeli broadcaster KAN has broken every rule in the European Broadcasting Union (EBU)’s rigged, colonial book. It has consistently justified and incited to genocide live on air, and its performance in Eurovision has been boosted by the Israeli government encouraging supporters to literally buy votes, as Israeli viewers openly admit to doing on social media.
Before the so-called ceasefire, which Israel has repeatedly violated in Gaza, five European national broadcasters had indicated they would withdraw from Eurovision if Israel isn’t banned. Following the ceasefire, the Dutch broadcaster has reasserted its decision, as the genocidal conditions created by Israel over the last two years continue to destroy Palestinian lives and livelihoods.
Palestinians welcome the decisions and statements of the Dutch, Spanish, Irish, Icelandic and Slovenian broadcasters. We call for intensifying pressure on all participating broadcasters to either stand by their previous position, in the case of the above, or to immediately and publicly commit to withdrawing if genocidal Israel is not banned.
By refusing to withdraw, most European broadcasters are yet again shielding Israel from accountability, helping to enable its genocide against 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza, and accelerating the world’s descent into a might-makes-right order. The very least they can do, after decades of coverage that has systematically obscured the facts of Israel’s regime of settler-colonial apartheid and laid the ground for its ongoing genocide, is withdraw from Eurovision immediately. This is a legal as well as an ethical responsibility.
The fact that the same EBU that has fought to keep apartheid Israel participating in the contest, and yet banned Russia almost immediately after its illegal invasion of Ukraine reveals the extent of the EBU’s colonial hypocrisy and racism. A new UN-published report, “Gaza Genocide: a collective crime”, cites Israel’s participation in Eurovision as a prominent example of how “Israel has been sheltered from accountability” in global fora.
PACBI has led the Europe-wide campaign to boycott Eurovision beginning in 2018-19, when the contest took place in apartheid Tel Aviv, and called for boycotting it again in 2024-25 over genocidal Israel’s participation. We applaud the tireless and strategic work of BDS campaigners, artists and other cultural workers across Europe to peacefully and effectively pressure broadcasters to withdraw.
Unless genocidal Israel is banned, PACBI and its wide network of European partners will call for boycotting Eurovision and will campaign for all participants, including broadcasters, performers, crew, presenters and all others, to withdraw from the contest. Eurovision organisers the EBU have utterly tarnished the contest to protect genocidal Israel. We call on fans, former participants, and all others to join and support our campaign and the day of action on Saturday 1st November.