The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has rejected a request from British stars to call for the 2019 Eurovision contest to be moved out of Israel.
Because Israeli singer Netta Barzilai won the competition in 2018, the competition is being held in Tel Aviv this upcoming May.
In a January 29 letter in the UK Guardian, numerous UK stars – including musicians Roger Waters and Peter Gabriel – advocated for the BBC to ask for Eurovision to be relocated since the network will be broadcasting the competition.
“Eurovision may be light entertainment, but it is not exempt from human rights considerations – and we cannot ignore Israel’s systematic violation of Palestinian human rights,” the letter states, accusing Israel of “apartheid” and subjecting Palestinians to “land theft, evictions, shootings, beatings.”
The BBC rejected their request, arguing that the competition is apolitical.
“The competition has always supported the values of friendship, inclusion, tolerance and diversity and we do not believe it would be appropriate to use the BBC’s participation for political reasons,” the network said in a statement. “Because of this we will be taking part in this year’s event. The host country is determined by the rules of the competition, not the BBC.”
