Pro-Palestinian groups demand artists boycott Eurovision in Israel

Manchester Palestine Action, Manchester Palestine Solidarity Campaign and Manchester Jewish Action for Palestine posted on Twitter, urging songwriters and performers to boycott the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest.

Israel’s Netta Barzilai won the contest this year, giving Israel the right to host it in 2019.

The three groups say they will protest at BBC Headquarters in London on December 1, to demand that the British Broadcasting Corporation withdraw from the song contest, calling the BBC’s participation “artwashing.”

The groups stressed, “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.”

The tweet didn’t mention that 50 of the 62 killed were members of Hamas, a fact admitted by the terrorist group itself.

All three pro-Palestine groups are part of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

BDS is a global movement that attempts to apply economic, academic and cultural pressure on Israel. Started in 2005, it compares Israel to South Africa’s apartheid regime, engaging in protests, demonstrations and targeting of companies that do business with Israel.

Israel considers BDS an illegitimate movement and has enacted laws to prevent those involved from entering the country. Twenty-six states in the U.S. have passed laws against the BDS movement. Kentucky was the most recent, with Gov. Matt Bevin signing an anti-BDS bill into law on Nov. 15, calling BDS “anti-Semitic” and “repugnant.”