Tomorrow evening, Thursday 2nd May, between 4.30pm and 6pm the Irish Boycott Eurovision 2024 Coalition will stage a visual spectacle and mini-concert calling for Ireland to boycott Eurovision 2024 outside RTÉ Studios gates. The action will feature artists, musicians, and LGBT and human rights activists, and a 'die-in' by health workers in scrubs, depicting Eurovision as a contest actively artwashing Israel’s war crimes.
Award-winning actor Stephen Rea will read Refaat Alareer's poem 'If I Should Die', legendary blues singer Mary Coughlan, Hothouse Flowers frontman Liam Ó Maonlaí, jazz chanteuse Honor Heffernan, and a host of other musicians will sing on stage. The event will be MC'd by queer artist Ciarna Hackett.
Great visuals for photographers and television reporting. Interviews with musicians, artists, and activists available at the RTE gate.
When: Thursday 2nd May, 4.30pm - 6pm
Where: RTÉ Studios, Stillorgan Road entrance, Donnybrook, Dublin 4
Great visuals for photographers and television reporting. Interviews with musicians, artists, and activists available at the RTE gate.
When: Thursday 2nd May, 4.30pm - 6pm
Where: RTÉ Studios, Stillorgan Road entrance, Donnybrook, Dublin 4
Irish Boycott Eurovision 2024 Coalition Spokesperson and IPSC Chair, Zoe Lawlor said: “Israel’s President Yitzhak Herzog has stated ‘it’s important for Israel to appear in Eurovision.’ We say the opposite. It’s vital to exclude the genocidal apartheid state of Israel from this global cultural platform. Ireland has shown the way in the 1980s in exposing the crimes of Apartheid South Africa. It can do the same now, by withdrawing its participation, and standing on the side of humanity, equality and human rights. Boycott Eurovision 2024!”
Israel has been waging a genocidal campaign against the people of Gaza, with at least 34,500 killed, 14,500 of them children, and many thousands more buried under the rubble. Starvation is being used as a weapon of war, according to UNICEF, who have declared Israel’s campaign, “a war on children." Mass graves show doctors, patients and children among those hand-bound and executed by Israeli soldiers. The International Court of Justice is investigating Israel for a plausible case of Genocide. And only yesterday, Israel confirmed their determination to continue their killing spree into the area of Rafah, where 1.5 million Gazan civilians are huddled in what supposed to be a place of safety for them, having been forced from their homes by Israeli bombardment.
Israel has been waging a genocidal campaign against the people of Gaza, with at least 34,500 killed, 14,500 of them children, and many thousands more buried under the rubble. Starvation is being used as a weapon of war, according to UNICEF, who have declared Israel’s campaign, “a war on children." Mass graves show doctors, patients and children among those hand-bound and executed by Israeli soldiers. The International Court of Justice is investigating Israel for a plausible case of Genocide. And only yesterday, Israel confirmed their determination to continue their killing spree into the area of Rafah, where 1.5 million Gazan civilians are huddled in what supposed to be a place of safety for them, having been forced from their homes by Israeli bombardment.
Israel is determined to artwash these war crimes, and is using the occasion of the Eurovision Song Contest to pretend all is normal. This protest against Ireland's participation in ogranised by a coalition of Irish artists, actvists and individuals who are calling for Ireland to boycott the contest, and not play on a stage with the rogue state of Israel. The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural boycott of Israel (PACBI), and the Palestinian led global BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) movement have called on all countries to refuse to participate because of Israel’s inclusion by the EBU - the same EBU that indefinitely suspended Russia and Belarus in 2022.
The Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign has written to RTEs Director General Kevin Bakhurst, and the RTE board, asking them to respect the Palestinian boycott request. More than 16,500 Irish people have signed a petition to RTE to this effect, and some 400 artists have written to Irish participant Bambie Thug requesting that they make a historic stand for justice by refusing to perform.
The Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign has written to RTEs Director General Kevin Bakhurst, and the RTE board, asking them to respect the Palestinian boycott request. More than 16,500 Irish people have signed a petition to RTE to this effect, and some 400 artists have written to Irish participant Bambie Thug requesting that they make a historic stand for justice by refusing to perform.
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