Diverse members of the Australian community send a message to SBS, Australia’s Special Broadcasting Service, to support the Boycott Divestment Sanctions (BDS) Australia call to cancel this year’s Eurovision broadcast from Israel. In many languages these SBS viewers have one message: “We love Eurovision, but we love human rights more.”
In every Eurovision country campaigners are working in solidarity with the struggle of Palestinian people for their equal human rights and the upholding of international law. They are calling on organisations like SBS that broadcast and promote the song contest to end their participation because this year Eurovision is not ‘bringing people together.’
Justice for Palestine Brisbane and BDS Australia held a protest event to meet with the fans going in to Eurovision ‘Australia Decides’ to explain why we are calling for a boycott, that “we love Eurovision, but we love human rights more.”
And below is some video footage of a boycott supporter unfurling a banner inside the event at the Gold Coast Convention Centre.
Australian artists are calling on SBS, Sony Music Australia, and all ten contestants in Saturday’s ‘Australia Decides’ Eurovision Song Contest event to hear the voices of Palestinians, including Palestinian musicians, who are calling for a boycott of Eurovision 2019 in Tel Aviv in Israel.
Significantly last year’s SBS Eurovision judge, hip hop artist L-FRESH The LION, supports the boycott call, as does renowned Australian actor Colin Friels, both quoted below.
“Israel’s 50 year brutal occupation of East Jerusalem and the West Bank, its 11-year illegal blockade and bombings of the two million people trapped in Gaza, its refusal to allow Palestinian refugees to return home, along with the 65 laws that discriminate against the Palestinian minority in Israel make it astonishing that Eurovision should be used to normalise and promote Israel, and that SBS and Australian musicians are playing along without comment,” says BDS Australia campaign spokesperson and Brisbane musician Phil Monsour.
“International boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS) played an important role in helping end apartheid in South Africa and the same will be true of ending apartheid in Palestine/Israel,” says Monsour.
A protest action in support of the boycott has been called by Justice for Palestine Brisbane and BDS Australia outside the Gold Coast Convention Centre from 3:30 PM AEST this Saturday 9 February.
“I stand with the people of Palestine. As an artist and musician, I don’t see how Eurovision can achieve its goal of bringing the world together through music by having its 2019 competition in Israel, while Israel continues to violently occupy Palestine. In respecting Palestinian’s call for a cultural boycott of Israel, I encourage my peers to do the same. We all have a part to play. We cannot remain silent or be complicit in the suffering of Palestinian people.” – L-FRESH The LION, hip hop artist and 2018 SBS Eurovision judge
Actor Colin Friels remarks, ”Given the siege of Gaza and the slaughter of Palestinians, the televising of the Eurovision Song Contest must not be allowed to ‘artwash’ Israeli brutalities. I strongly support the boycott of this event and urge others to do the same.”
Writer, actor and multidisciplinary artist Candy Bowers says, “Palestinian artists and musicians are asking for our solidarity, recognising our own relative privilege, to join the boycott of Israel until they win justice and equality. Israeli policy has been about erasing Palestinian culture and ignoring Palestinian voices. I hear their voices and urge others artists in Australia to hear them too. Art and entertainment should never ignore human rights.”
“Eurovision in Israel seems like a typical colonial diversionary tactic: play loud so that no one hears the gurgling of those being slain.” – contemporary Aboriginal artist Blak Douglas
PHONE: Phil Monsour on +61 400 912 550 EMAIL: BDS Australia at [email protected]
SBS Australia and Blink TV have now announced the 10 contestants for the Eurovision – ‘Australia Decides’ – Gold Coast 2019 event happening on February 8 and 9.
We have written to each contestant (see our letter below to Kate Miller-Heidke), but we really need your help to let these musicians know that Palestinians are calling on them to #BoycottEurovision2019 in Israel.
All the artists are on Facebook, 9 have Instagram, and most use Twitter.
Contact details for all of the performers are below. Here’s how to do it best: 1/. If you’re a fan, let them know you love what they do 2/. Be super polite: we want to inform and convince them. Remember, they may not really understand the situation for Palestinians or how they can help, so again, be super polite! 3/. Use your own words, but there are many places to get information, including many links on this page 4/. Tell them about the role international artists played in piling on the pressure with boycotts to end apartheid in South Africa – some of them may not know anything about this 5/. Remind them that Eurovision will happen again in 2020, so sitting out this year for Palestinians’ human rights is not so hard 6/. Ask for a reply 7/. Share what you’re doing on social media so others will also contact them 8/. Use the hashtags #Eurovision2019 #BoycottEurovision2019 #FreePalestine #BoycottIsrael
“Disapproval of the actions of Israel and sympathy for Palestinians in public opinion is high. But, as every Palestine campaigner here knows, translating agreement into action can often be an uphill battle.”
It really helps if you: 1/ Sign our Boycott Eurovision 2019 SBS petition 2/ Make a donation of any size to support our work 3/ Like our Facebook page 4/ Share these^ links. 5/ Do all of the above! Thanks!
This website is maintained by BDS Australia, which is affiliated with the coalition of Palestinian organisations that leads and supports the BDS movement and by the Palestinian Campaign for Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), a BNC member organisation.
It’s a great question posed by our BDS Australia committee member Nick Riemer in New Matilda today –