Readers' Blog: We can’t sing to Israel’s tune on Eurovision
The Eurovision Song Contest 2019 is to be held next year in Tel Aviv in Israel, a state associated with Palestinian human rights abuses.
The song contest may be an opportune and beneficial platform for many artists, including songwriters, broadcasters, performers, costume designers, and reporters.
However, these opportunities and benefits might come at a high price for those who see the contest as a global non-political and equality promoting event.
I implore aspiring Eurovision 2019 performers and artists to consider the impact of the human rights abuses by the state of Israel on the Palestinian people as a moral issue that will be associated with their prospective performance in Israel.
How will having played in Israel, where abuses of the human rights of Palestinians happens on a state-sanctioned level, look as a ‘new string for your bow’?
I would say it makes for a whole different instrument. One that’s not worth picking up and playing anyway.
