Protesters at RTÉ call for Eurovision boycott over Israel

Joan O'Sullivan Joan O'Sullivan | 05-03 00:15

Singers, musicians, artists and activists are taking part in the protest organised by the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign.

It features a "die-in" by health workers in scrubs depicting the Eurovision as a contest which it said was actively "art-washing" Israel's war crimes.

Actor Stephen Rea will read the poem If I Must Die by Palestinian poet Refaat Alareer and singers Mary Coughlan and Hothouse Flowers frontman Liam Ó Maonlaí are among those performing at the event.

From left, Hothouse Flowers frontman Liam Ó Maonlaí, musician Steve Wall, singer Mary Coughlan and actor Stephen Rea

In a statement, 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."

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