Olly Alexander, who was announced as the UK entrant only last week, was one of 1,400 people and organizations to sign a statement by Voices4 London ‘standing in solidarity with the Palestinian liberation movement’
Amid a sharp rise in anti-Semitic activities across Europe and the United States in the aftermath of the Israel-Hamas war, activists and the British Conservative Party have called on the BBC to drop the United Kingdom’s entrant for the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest after he was accused of endorsing a letter which blamed Israel of practicing apartheid and genocide.
Olly Alexander, who was announced as the UK entrant only last week, was one of 1,400 people and organizations to sign a statement by Voices4 London “standing in solidarity with the Palestinian liberation movement.”
The letter, which came out less than two weeks after the October 7 massacre, accused Israel of committing “unspeakable crimes against humanity” in the war against Hamas and of being an apartheid regime since its inception 75 years ago.
Current events simply are an escalation of the state of Israel’s apartheid regime, which acts to ethnically cleanse the land. Since the violent creation of the state 75 years ago, the Israeli military and Israeli settlers have continued to terrorize Palestinian people,” reads the letter endorsed by Alexander, the UK’s entrant for the contest.
But, the letter does not refer to the October 7 massacre or any Palestinian terrorism. It includes, however, a brief mention of the hostages being held in Gaza, but does not mention Hamas at all.
The letter also accuses Israel of “pinkwashing” and implies that the criminalization of homosexuality in the Palestinian territories has its source in Western colonialism.
