People across Europe are taking action in response to the Palestinian call to boycott the Eurovision Song Contest being hosted next week in Tel Aviv.

London Palestine Action and Queers for Justice in Palestine on Friday released a catchy spoof of the Village People’s “YMCA” to urge broadcaster Graham Norton to drop out as the BBC’s Eurovision host.

“Stand up for justice, say Yes, BDS!” the activists sing, urging support for the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement.

Watch the video above.

Meanwhile, two LGBTQ organizations have canceled Eurovision parties in response to the Palestinian call not to allow Israel to use the event to obscure its human rights crimes.

Barcelona’s El Casal Lambda – established in 1976 as the Franco dictatorship ended – said it had canceled its viewing party next Saturday, citing its “long and extensive experience defending human rights.”

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El Casal Lambda s’afegeix al conjunt d’entitats LGTBI que reproven el Festival d’Eurovisió d’enguany. En conseqüència, la situació d’aquesta edició ha portat a la decisió última de suspendre l’activitat programada pel dia 18 al Centre @BarcelonaLGTBI. pic.twitter.com/LzrgzQA1Rb — Casal Lambda (@CasalLambda) May 8, 2019

More good news! The LGBT+ youth organization of Copenhagen canceled their @Eurovision party due to apartheid Israel's pinkwashing agenda and will celebrate the music of Abba instead!



Here's how to organize yr own #ApartheidFreeEurovision party: https://t.co/Oh29CE4ehP#ESC2019 pic.twitter.com/LPcuyprakS — PACBI (@PACBI) May 10, 2019

Copenhagen’s LGBT+ Ungdom center also canceled a Eurovision party and is organizing an alternative event.

The youth organization said members decided they could not go ahead with the original event because of Eurovision’s use of pinkwashing.

Pinkwashing is the public relations strategy that deploys Tel Aviv’s gay party culture and Israel’s supposed enlightenment toward LGBTQ issues to deflect criticism from its human rights abuses against Palestinians.

Pinkwashing is typically aimed at Western liberal audiences.

Dozens of LGBTQ groups had already called for a boycott of Eurovision, and many are hosting “apartheid-free” parties on Eurovision finals night as an alternative.

Boycott Eurovision hosted by apartheid Israel & party with us! Come down to Trash! The Alternative Eurovision Song Contest @arcolatheatre catch some of the best DIY bands & drag acts around! #BoycottEurovision2019 #ApartheidFreeEurovision pic.twitter.com/vuCYJ9L9qo — LDNPalestineAction (@LondonPalestine) May 8, 2019

Against apartheid

On Friday, more than 100 French artists denounced holding Eurovision in Tel Aviv, citing Israel’s crimes, including the deliberate destruction last year of Gaza’s main performance and arts venue, the Said al-Mishal Cultural Center.

“We call on France Television and the French delegation not to bail out a regime that sends snipers every Friday against unarmed children in the Great March of Return in Gaza,” the artists stated.

“Self-respecting entertainment would not play in the land of apartheid. We would not have accepted it in South Africa and we don’t accept it for Israel.”

The noted French comics artist Tardi made this cartoon to emphasize the point:

Un visuel du dessinateur Tardi contre l'#Eurovision 2019 en Israël Apartheid: pic.twitter.com/vJ0Xgj95Sj — AgenceMediaPalestine (@AgenceMediaPal) May 6, 2019

In a similar spirit, dozens of veterans of the Irish solidarity movement against apartheid in South Africa amplified calls on Ireland’s contestant, Sarah McTernan, to pull out of Eurovision.

“As with apartheid South Africa’s promotion of the ‘Sun City’ resort as an entertainment venue, it is simply not possible to view the Eurovision being held in Tel Aviv as merely an apolitical cultural event,” their letter in The Irish Times states.

“We ask Sarah McTernan to listen to the call from the Palestinian people to do no harm, to not cross their picket line.”

"Hundreds of Palestinian children are detained, prosecuted and subjected to torture and ill treatment by the Israeli military court system"



Advert for #Eurovision2019 on a #Dublin bus today. pic.twitter.com/0HChNqnCDX — Ciaran Tierney (@ciarantierney) May 8, 2019

Former Irish TV Eurovision host Mike Murphy recorded this video announcing his support for the boycott:

Douze Points for #BDS and ‘Palestine - You’re a Vision’ from former Eurovision host Mike Murphy!



Palestine - You’re a Vision takes place in the Ringside Bar or the National Stadium on May 18 (ticket link in bio)#BoycottEurovision2019 #Eurovision#legend #Palestine pic.twitter.com/DafJ7ps35y — PalFest Ireland (@PalFestIreland) May 9, 2019

And on Tuesday, activists in Geneva delivered a 136,000-signature petition against holding Eurovision in Tel Aviv to the headquarters of the European Broadcasting Union, the body that organizes the contest:

Failure

Israeli leaders will no doubt be congratulating themselves that with only days before the start of the contest, no performers have announced a pullout.

However, Klemens Hannigan and Matthias Haraldsson, the front men for Iceland’s contestant Hatari, said that they were “conflicted” about being in Tel Aviv, and had visited the occupied West Bank city of Hebron last week.

“The political reality is really conflicting, and absurd, and the apartheid was so clear in Hebron,” Haraldsson told an interviewer.

Israeli officials had earlier reportedly considered barring entry to Hatari over the group’s support for Palestinian rights.

Yet Hannigan said the musicians still planned to play in Tel Aviv – defying a direct Palestinian appeal – because “hopefully we will make awareness to the world through Eurovision.”

But by other measures, Eurovision is already a massive failure for Israel.

The expected flood of tourists Israel hoped would come to Tel Aviv failed to materialize, and hotel and airline prices have plummeted.

With thousands of tickets for the Eurovision concerts still unsold, organizers are now giving seats away to residents of Israeli communities surrounding the besieged Gaza Strip.

A key message of Israel’s propaganda is to present the country as fun, uncontroversial and “normal,” and as a desirable destination for tourism and cultural events.

Instead, much of the international media coverage has focused on the Palestinian boycott call, especially in light of Israel’s most recent lethal bombing campaign in Gaza, and has therefore helped raise public awareness of Israel’s abuses.

"If you want to enjoy the kitschy song contest, which will take place from 14 to 18 May in Tel Aviv, Israel, then you have got to ignore the bloody political context that surrounds it."https://t.co/IWRGyado6U#BoycottEurovision2019 #ESC2019 #Eurovision2019 @Eurovision @EBU_HQ — PACBI (@PACBI) May 8, 2019

This has forced Israel onto the defensive, announcing that it would ban European human rights activists from entering the country in a further effort to muzzle protest and dissent.

Such has been the organic support for a boycott, that Israel has repeatedly deployed its official Act.IL smartphone app to rig online polls in its favor.

Israel counters Eurovision boycott campaign with Google ads https://t.co/SoIXclStOI pic.twitter.com/4uhDhte7qO — Reuters Top News (@Reuters) May 10, 2019

Israel has launched a PR campaign to counter calls for a boycott of the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest final in Tel Aviv. https://t.co/23ftvc3j2S — MSNBC (@MSNBC) May 10, 2019

#Israel's Ambassador to #Ireland says calls for a boycott of #Eurovision crosses a line into anti-Israel extremism. https://t.co/qnuhNdZ0AA — Israel in Ireland (@IsraelinIreland) May 9, 2019

Sinn Féin activists join the protest outside at BBC offices Ormeau Road calling for an end to the latest onslought against Gaza & to boycott the upcoming Eurovision. Stad an Slad i nGaza 🇵🇸 pic.twitter.com/fZH6rgHRU7 — Sinn Féin (@sinnfeinireland) May 6, 2019

In Tel Aviv, Eurovision songfest braces for pro-Palestinian boycott protests https://t.co/znLMhK9TmN pic.twitter.com/fMkx213HYO — Reuters Top News (@Reuters) May 3, 2019

Desperate measures

Israel has also launched a glossy ad campaign in an effort to counter the calls for boycott.

Public broadcaster Kan, which is producing the Tel Aviv Eurovision, launched this supposedly lighthearted video in a last-ditch effort to attract tourists:

📺 This is the land of honey, honey!



Let Lucy and Elia take you in a musical journey throughout the most important parts of Israel. We promise you won't regret it! 👇👇👇 pic.twitter.com/djQlNXPoDe — KAN Eurovision Israel (@kaneurovision) May 10, 2019

But PACBI, the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, slammed the video as desperate propaganda that “falsely claims occupied Palestinian East Jerusalem as part of Israel and contains anti-Semitic and misogynistic content.”

For instance, the Kan video contains a line echoing classic anti-Semitism that “most of us are Jews but only some of us are greedy.”

In a desperate attempt to distract from the failure of next week's #Eurovision in apartheid Tel Aviv, Israel releases a promo video that falsely claims occupied Palestinian East Jerusalem as part of Israel and contains antisemitic and misogynistic content.#BoycottEurovision2019 pic.twitter.com/51MxlZaqlt — PACBI (@PACBI) May 10, 2019

Eurovision semi-finals begin on 14 May and the grand finale is on 18 May.

Last year on 14 May, Israel perpetrated a massacre of some 60 unarmed Palestinian civilians protesting the siege of the occupied Gaza Strip and demanding their right to return to the familial lands Israel expelled them from for not being Jewish.

On 15 May, Palestinians will be marking the 71st anniversary of the Nakba – the systematic ethnic cleansing of Palestine in order to create Israel.

As they do so, Palestinians are determined not to allow Eurovision to be used to cover up Israel’s past and present crimes – even when Eurovision celebrations are being held directly over the ruins of their communities.