RTÉ is facing calls to withdraw from the Eurovision Song Contest due to Israel’s participation in the event, reports Breaking News.
Irish actor Stephen Rea recited the poem If I Must Die by Palestinian poet Refaat Alareer — who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza — during a protest outside RTÉ’s Donnybrook campus in Dublin on Friday evening, where dozens of demonstrators gathered.
Some protesters wore keffiyehs, waved Palestinian flags, and held signs bearing messages such as “you can’t culturewash genocide” and “you need to boycott Israel now”, reports Breaking News.
The event included a small concert with live musical performances and speeches in support of Palestinian rights and against war.
Protesters demanded that Ireland pull out of Eurovision 2025, highlighting that over 70 past participants had endorsed the call to ban Israel’s broadcaster, KAN.
They pointed out that the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which runs the contest, had previously suspended Russia and Belarus indefinitely in 2022, reports Breaking News.
The demonstration brought together musicians, activists for LGBT and human rights, and included Trevor Keegan, chair of an RTÉ NUJ sub-branch.
RTÉ’s director general Kevin Bakhurst said the broadcaster would not withdraw its Eurovision entry – Laika Party by singer Emmy – from the competition, reports Breaking News.
However, he added that he had contacted the EBU, whose chair is Irishman and former RTÉ director general Noel Curran, to request a “discussion” on Israel’s role in the contest.
Zoe Lawlor, chair of the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign, accused Israel’s broadcaster of using Eurovision to “culturewash” apartheid.
She said: “It’s vital to exclude the genocidal apartheid state of Israel from this global cultural platform now. Ireland showed the way in the 1980s, standing resolutely against the racist and murderous crimes of apartheid South Africa. RTÉ can help do the same now, by withdrawing its participation and standing on the side of humanity, equality and human rights,” reports Breaking News.
Earlier that same day, pro-Palestinian demonstrators also gathered outside a BBC studio in central Belfast.
The protestors struck dustbin lids against walls and chanted slogans criticising the BBC’s coverage of the Gaza conflict, reports Breaking News.
They too called for a Eurovision boycott. The BBC is entering the group Remember Monday, performing the song What the Hell Just Happened?
The 2025 Eurovision Song Contest, organised by the EBU, is scheduled to begin on May 13th in Switzerland, with the final to be held on May 17th.
Israel plans to send Yuval Raphael, 24, who survived the October 7th, 2023 Hamas attack, as its representative in the competition, reports Breaking News.
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