Roger Waters Urges Kate Miller-Heidke to boycott Eurovision 2019 in “Israel”
(QNN) – Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters has released a video urging Australian Eurovision contestant Kate Miller-Heidke to boycott this year’s event to be held in “Israel”.
The English songwriter posted a video on Vimeo on Wednesday of himself asking the Australian Eurovision finalist, Kate Miller-Heidke, to consider the lives of the Palestinian refugees besieged in Gaza, and to think hard about the way Eurovision 2019 is being used by the Israeli state to legitimize its brutal occupation and apartheid policies.
“This is a personal entreaty to you, to consider the possibility of standing alongside the refugees in Palestine and also the Palestinian refugees who have been living outside of Palestine for the last 70 years,” Waters said in the video.
“You, if you go to Tel Aviv and sing, will be used by the Israeli government to whitewash the occupation and it’s gone on too long.”
“This has to stop,” Waters added. “This boycott that was asked for, requested by Palestinian civil society back in 2006, is the most effective way of shining a light on these dark times.
“Either you will or you won’t. I hope you will. If you care about refugees, if you care about human rights, you will be the one to stand up and say, ‘You know what guys, I’m not prepared to be part of this whitewash. I would love to sing for you but it’s going to have to be after all the people in the holy land have equal human rights under the law,'” he continued.
Over 100 artists, including Waters, signed an open letter in September last year calling for a boycott if Eurovision was to be hosted in Israel.
The Special Broadcasting Service, a hybrid-funded Australian public broadcasting radio (SBS), has since threatened legal action against protesters calling for the boycott for using its branding.
In a statement, an SBS spokesperson said, “SBS has been broadcasting Eurovision for 35 years and will continue to do so because of the spirit of the event in bringing people and cultures together in a celebration of diversity and inclusion through music.”
“It matters that singers and musicians understand the call to #BoycottEurovision2019 and not play in Israel until Palestinians have equal human rights,” stated in the caption below Water’s video on Vimeo.
