Gillian Brien, the People Before Profit candidate for the Dublin constituency of the European Parliament has supported calls for a boycott of the Eurovision song contest and slammed comments by Israel’s ambassador to Ireland, Ophir Kariv.
“Israel’s representative in Ireland, Ophir Kariv, has described calls for a boycott of the Eurovision contest as ‘crossing a line’ because it challenges a cultural event.
“We heard the exact same arguments from the apartheid regime in South Africa when thousands of Irish people protested at sport events.
“The reality is that Israel has ‘crossed the line’ when it comes to the treatment of Palestinians.
“It’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel is ‘not a state of all its citizens but only of the Jewish people.’
“Israel has effectively imprisoned tens of thousands of people in Gaza where it controls there exits and entrances. It has degraded basic infrastructure and regularly murders people in that tiny strip of land.
“Just as a boycott of South Africa, contributed to the overthrow of its racist regime, international solidarity with Palestinian people is vital for bringing justice to the area.”
