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THE LABOUR PARTY has called on RTÉ to boycott the Eurovision Song Contest in 2019 if Israel hosts it in Jerusalem.
However, it has already been confirmed by the European Broadcasting Union that the event will take place in Tel Aviv.
The motion, tabled by LabourYouth, was passed by a majority at today’s Labour Party conference. It read:
“[Labour] calls on RTÉ to boycott the Eurovision Song Contest in 2019 if Israel proceeds with its proposals to host Eurovision in Jerusalem. This boycott must stay in place till a peace deal is agreed between Palestine and Israel.”
The above motion was placed on the conference agenda before it was announced that it would be in Tel Aviv. A spokesperson for Labour could not confirm why the motion was not subsequently amended.
Israel earned the right to host next year’s Eurovision in May when Israeli singer Netta Barzilai won the 2018 contest in Lisbon with a song inspired by the #MeToo movement against sexual harassment.
The host country for next year’s contest has proven to be controversial here, with figures from politicians to former song contest winners and presenters adding to calls for Ireland to stay away from the Israel-hosted show next year.
EBU said the decision to choose Tel Aviv was taken by the contest board, which had asked Israeli public broadcaster KAN to present at least two potential candidate cities for the annual competition.
Today’s conference also called the government to institute a cultural boycott of Israel immediately.
Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney has previously said that a boycott is not something the government would back, insisting that withdrawing from the songfest would only “polarise things even further”.
Israel has previously hosted the contest in 1979 and 1999. RTÉ sent an act to compete in the contest on both those occasions. RTÉ has said that, on this occasion, it will not sanction any member of staff who doesn’t wish to travel to Israel for next year’s event.
With reporting by AFP and Daragh Brophy
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Another pr stunt from labour, a nice gesture but only trying to pick a couple of cheap votes. Gombeens
@Declan Crowley: they’d be very cheap votes….how about boycotting the €160 licence tax???
@Declan Crowley: I’m writing to RTE to ask them to boycott Labour…..
@windbag: yeah they devoted the whole morning to labours conference, why is my license fee wasted on a false labour party
@Dave O’Hanlon: for seven td’s it ridiculous the coverage they are getting.
@Declan Crowley: Labour trying to have their cake and eat it.
How about we boycott RTE
@Liam Byrne: Now you are talking
@Liam Byrne: I can boycott both it pretty easy to do
Have they nothing better to be talking about
Labour would have never done something like this if they were in government. A cheap stunt to make them seem like they still have leftist credentials.
Why Don’t Labour pass a motion calling on the Insurance companies to stop the cartels. And ripping off people
To late for Liebour..
The sold out and it won’t be forgotten…
Toast..
So did FF, but time is a great healer and history repeats itself.
@Willy Mc Caul: Who do you support Willie?
Labor passes a motion but still full of
I feel dirty agreeing with Labour but they are absolutely right in calling for a boycott.
@European Bob: why didn’t they boycott all other contests where Israel did take part.?
@Hans Vos:
Because they weren’t in Israel?
@European Bob: what’s the difference between Israel hosting it and Turkey hosting it? Approximately 50,000 killed in the Turkish-Kurdish conflict. The Turks also invaded and annexed North Cyprus, ethnically cleansing every last man, woman and child Greek Cypriot in the process (bar a handful in one solitary village); built a separation wall; refuse to acknowledge the genocidal campaigns against the Pontic Greeks, Armenians and Assyrians; have stifled press and internet freedom; etc. Yet, I don’t recall any calls for their boycott. A similar amount of people killed in the Israeli-Arab conflict, and while the treatment of Palestinians in the Occupied Territories is reprehensible, Arabs do have full rights as citizens of Israel proper, unlike the Kurds of Turkey.
@Patrick Nolan: so you only boycott if Israel win’s. Kind of sour grapes.
@Brian Ó Dálaigh: because Israel are practising ethnic cleansing today. Also, stating Arabs have equal rights in Israel couldn’t be further from truth. They only demoted their language from being one of the official languages of ‘Israel’ a few months ago.
@Cormac Ó Braonáin: Demoted from official national language to officially recognised language. It can still be used when dealing with state organisations. Schooling can still be undertaken through Arabic instruction. Turkey is also practising ethnic cleansing today against the Kurds and currently occupies part of Syria and part of Cyprus. Kurdish language education is banned and Kurdish has no official status. Now, either you think Palestinians are too weak and need our support while Kurds can stand up for themselves, or you think Palestinians are worthy while Kurds are not worthy of help, or, you deem Israeli Jews as a lesser human. Whatever way you spin it, you can only accept such hypocrisy if it is inherently racist. Selective equality of human rights and freedom is racism.
Labour jumping on any bandwagon to get votes,they have no credibility in irish politics after crucifying their own voters in 2011-16 goverment.they betrayed the public and will never be forgiven.
Why don’t labour pass a motion to stop lying to the electorate before elections
Are there no lows to which Labour won’t stoop? A cautionary tale for young voters out there who are thinking about voting labour…as soon as they get into a coalition with the firmly pro-Israel FG or (slightly less firm) FF all hints of such a proposal will be snuffed out like a candle in the wind. They do this every few years or so, Labour’s MO is to capitalise on populist views; whatever happens to be in vogue at the time, garner enough votes from the young, naive and idealistic to use their seats to leverage their way into power with another party and then quickly do a 180 and not only abandon any and all platforms they were elected in on but sometimes even do the OPPOSITE, like literally overnight.
They have passed this motion even though the EBU have confirmed that it will be held elsewhere anyway. This is akin to them drafting proposed legislation against viewing fees being paid to landlords of rental properties…..which never happened either.. Labour really have their finger on the pulse alright !! And Howlin this week tried to tell us how relevant Labour are.. More BS from a fading political party..
Proper order
Wonderful. From the margin of error party. Appointing Howlin as leader death knell of party. The rump will be reduced to two next election. Howlin and Kelly. The smugness of Howlin on the election of Mick D another coffin nail.
Totally ignored the exes, lear jetting, 5 star hotelling, no audits, property speculating, accrual of 5 pensions, no to FOI, cutback on debating, using State car to electioneer on bogus security grounds (ignore SIPO silly ruling) not to mention first term lying promise. Not the labour party I voted for.
Last time you came back to the Dail in mpv taxi. Book your rickshaw or tandem now Brendan. And good riddance.
Today’s Labour Party Conference
held in a phone box so they can say they were packed!!
What clowns they are..why not pass a motion calling for action against Saudi Arabia
i dont have much time for the auld antisemitism father….
Labour is so important and rte is so full of Lefty commies. A must watch.
Proper order folks!
Meaningless and menial. Labour personified.
Many of the american companies employing thousands in the Irish republic have very strong links to Israel so would it not be a wise move for the Irish to be insulting Israel.
If the Lab party keep talking this kind of gibberish Ireland could find itself barred from the contest.
Using Vicky Phelan to get them noticed is disgusting & they done save with Marie Cahill desperate or what .
Labour agrees to boycott something that is not going to happen? What a monumental waste of time.
I’m out!
So the Labour Gimps pass a motion calling for the boycotting of the Eurovision if held in Jerusalem……………..AFTER it had been confirmed as being held in Tel Aviv,
What a shower of blithering idiots, and they hope peple will buy this crap?
No wonder they are finished aras holes the lot of them
The what party?
Since when was Israel part of Europe?
@Stephen Deegan: Same year as Australia joined.
Journal why are you censoring my opinion? You are curtailing an opinion on here are you running a dictatorship? Support Jerusalem!
Should have passed a motion proscribing themselves.
Eurovision as a competition should be boycotted if a song “I’m not your toy you stupid boy” ends up winning it
@Acedeuce: go way outa that you even remembered the words !
@Siobhán Ni Mhurchú: every time I see her face the song comes on in my head.. I was bored enough to actually watch Eurovision that night :( if only people knew i had the lyrics tattooed on my ankle, and I sing it in the shower with the shampoo bottle as a microphone. They’ll never know though, thankfully.
Jerusalem hosted Eurovision in 1979 (Cathal Dunne finishing 5th for Ireland with “Happy Man”; declined to host in 1980 and again in 1999 (The Mullans finishing 17th for Ireland with “When You Need Me”. Had they hosted in 2019 that would have been a 20 year interval between hosting.
A lot of uneducated comment on here about Labour
When last in Government:
– Created a stable economy -no one expected that the economy and jobs would recover so quickly.
- Got people back to work by creating a strong growth situation.
- Got rid of the Troika.
Do try to be fair. They did have to accept some hard medicine but……
@now-now-now: Can’t burn bondholders. Not French and Germans. Can’t burn depositors.Eu dictate. Google Cyprus. All Russian money. Deposits over 100 k gone . All bondholders burned. We are left with 200 billion debt.
Labour could have stayed out and dictated policy on banking collapse. Opted for Govt and pensions.
Shafted Gilmore for whiney Burton.
@now-now-now: in fairness the electorate did not give Labour sufficient a mandate to achieve their aims. Why not hold FG account? They were the majority party in that Coalition.
@Micheal S. O’ Ceilleachair: And the Fianna Failures, who spread corruption & spent everything we could borrow, to enrich themselves. The country at large has no broadband because FF sold Telecom Eireann, it then became the victim of 4 asset stripper rip offs, & now we may have to buy it back to get the job done.
& as for Labour, whilst they rolled over under pressure from the European bank, to bail out our profligate banks, & their bondholders, they did at least protect the poorest segment of our population. See Greece collapse for comparison.
The country was bankrupted, not by Labour, but by wasters of the other brands.
And why not make a gesture in support of Palestinians, they need it, at every opportunity.
Glory be……..hopefully the boycott will be a long running one and maybe they should extend the protest to ensure that we don’t enter it for the foreseeable future….woeful torture every year……. for once something positive emanating from Israel
Why don’t Labour pass a motion calling on the judicial system to review the ridiculous size of payouts for injuries occurred from ‘whiplash’, ‘slipping over’ in the supermarket or surfing on the outside of a Luas
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