60+ LGBTQ+ Organizations Worldwide Call for Eurovision Boycott Over Its Inclusion of Israel

Abby Monteil
·3 min read

JOHAN NILSSON/Getty Images

More than 60 LGBTQ+ organizations are calling for broadcasters, competitors, workers, and viewers to boycott 2024’s Eurovision Song Contest following the competition’s decision to include Israel in this year’s event, which takes place in Sweden.

Support for the boycott has come from LGBTQ+ organizations around the world, including QPEN in the United States, Queers in Palestine in Palestine, Pride in Protest in Australia, and Dyke March Amsterdam in the Netherlands.

“Israeli soldiers wave rainbow flags atop the ruins of Palestinian homes destroyed by the Israeli military in Gaza — a cynical attempt to rebrand Israel’s genocide as an act of queer liberation,” the boycott’s organizers said in a press release statement.

The statement likely refers in part to a viral November 2023 post from the state of Israel's official X account, which showed an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldier standing amidst rubble it what was reportedly northern Gaza holding a Pride flag that had “In the name of love” written on it in English, Hebrew, and Arabic. The post said that the soldier is “a member of the LGBTQ+ community” who “wanted to send a message of hope to the people of Gaza living under Hamas brutality.” The post was criticized by LGBTQ+ advocates for being a prime example of “pinkwashing.”

The statement continued: “Allowing Israel to participate in Eurovision — an international pop cultural event with a massive LGBTQ+ audience — further contributes to Israel’s desperate pinkwashing attempts.”

The groups’ press release noted that although Eurovision excluded Russia the day after the country invaded Ukraine, similar measures have not been applied to Israel following the January International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling that it is “plausible” that Israel is committing acts of genocide in Gaza. While the ICJ stated that it would proceed on South Africa’s case charging Israel with violation of the 1948 Convention of the Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, the court did not order Israel to stop its military operations. Since Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel that killed 1,200 and took 250 hostages, Israeli military actions have killed over 34,000 Palestinians in Gaza and injured more than 75,000 Palestinians.

This isn’t the first time that artists and LGBTQ+ organizations have protested the international music competition’s inclusion of Israel. Back in 2019, over 100 LGBTQ+ groups endorsed a Palestinian call for a boycott of that year’s competition, which took place in Israel, following what Amnesty International described as “deliberate attempts” to kill and maim Palestinian civilians participating in protests in Gaza.

This past January, more than 1,000 Swedish musicians, including LGBTQ+ icon Robyn, called for Eurovision to exclude Israel from the 2024 competition in an open letter to the European Broadcasting Union, who said in a statement to Billboard that the Israeli public broadcaster KAN has met all the competition rules for this year and is eligible to compete.

Later, in March, over 1,900 queer artists and organizations called on the UK’s Eurovision contestant, queer actor and musician Olly Alexander, to boycott the competition out of solidarity with Palestine.

Eurovision 2024 is set to begin on May 7.

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Originally Appeared on them.

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