Eurovision has turned into a ‘pinkwashing’ opportunity for Israel – the LGBT+ community should boycott it

The narrative that Israel welcomes LGBT+ self-expression while in the rest of the Middle East queers face relentless persecution, constructs a false opposition

The exploitation of LGBT+ identities for public relations purposes – so-called “pinkwashing” – is nothing new. But the state of Israel, long one of its worst proponents, appears to be taking pinkwashing to the next level as it prepares to host the Eurovision song contest in May.

Ever since adopting its official nation-branding programme “Brand Israel”, in 2005, the instrumentalisation of queer rights and a liberal gay lifestyle has been a key plank of Israel’s propaganda campaign.

As such, Eurovision – the ultimate celebration of camp and flamboyance, dubbed the “gay Olympics” – is a perfect opportunity for Israel to pinkwash its systematic denial of Palestinian rights.

February – LGBT+ history month – saw young singer Michael Rice selected to represent Britain after a public vote and prominent gay personality Graham Norton was confirmed to host the BBC’s coverage of the event.

In April, many contestants including Bilal Hassani of France and Miki of Spain will appear at an official Eurovision party in London, a longstanding staple of the gay social calendar.

But there have also been calls from the likes of Vivienne Westwood, Peter Gabriel and Wolf Alice for the BBC to demand Eurovision is held elsewhere, in order to respect the call for Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel until it ceases to deny Palestinian rights.

And since queer groups alQaws and Pinkwatching Israel issued a call from Palestine for a boycott of Eurovision, almost a hundred LGBT+ groups from around the world have signed up.

Increasingly, LGBT+ communities are supporting Palestinians, rather than buying into Israel’s pinkwashing. They recognise that from a collective liberation perspective, struggles for queer and Palestinian liberation are inseparable.

Israel markets the city of Tel Aviv, which will host Eurovision in May, as a haven for gay tourists. It appears to believe that this supposedly liberal and progressive aspect of its society will, in PR terms, somehow override or cancel out critiques of the regime of occupation and apartheid it imposes on Palestinians.

The country’s LGBT+-friendly image has long been front-and-centre at Eurovision, even since its 1998 representative transgender singer Dana International won the competition. While last year’s winner, Israeli singer Netta Barzilai, has a strongly LGBT+ fanbase.

The Israeli government saw Barzilai’s victory as a diplomatic triumph and prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu phoned her straight away to praise her as “the best ambassador for Israel”.

Netanyahu has also presided over the brutal repression of Palestinian protests in Gaza, which began happening weekly last March. Since then, Israeli forces have killed over 200 Palestinians and injured approximately 18,000 people demonstrating for their right – as refugees – to return to their homeland.

At the height of these massacres, Barzilai performed at a government-sponsored event celebrating her Eurovision success and declared “we have a reason to be happy”. That same day, 14 May 2018, was the bloodiest yet. The Israeli army had slaughtered at least 58 Palestinians.

Eurovision will be held on 18 May 2019, almost a year to the day that this massacre took place and just a few days after Israel marks its Independence Day on 15 May. For Palestinians, this date commemorates the Nakba (catastrophe), the ethnic cleansing of over 750,000 people in 1948. The Nakba continues today when Israel revokes Palestinians’ residency permits, amongst other forms of displacement.

It could not be clearer that nothing is apolitical where Israel is concerned. That’s why the idea that holding Eurovision in Israel is “just a bit of fun”, is so misguided.

In fact, we can say from personal experience that pinkwashing has deeply harmful impacts, not least on Palestinian queers. The narrative that Israel welcomes LGBT+ self-expression while in the rest of the Middle East queers face relentless persecution, constructs a false opposition.

It is not merely propaganda which makes Zionism more appealing to queer groups, sometimes even eliciting direct support for Israel’s apartheid regime. It is also a form of violence against Palestinian queers, rendering all of the progressive forces inside Palestine invisible, including erasing the queer Palestinian movement’s achievements.

This narrative encourages LGBT+ Palestinians to believe that their families, society and friends will always reject them and there is no hope of challenging homophobia – something which also exists in Israel, despite efforts to hide it.

Above all, Israel’s pinkwashing is a cynical attempt to normalise its entrenched apartheid regime which discriminates against, dispossesses and subordinates all Palestinians, queers and non-queers alike.

However, as the fascist underbelly of Israeli politics becomes increasingly visible – and far-right politicians across the world mirror this agenda – we remain hopeful that Israel’s pinkwashing around Eurovision won’t succeed.

While Israel wants to use the spectacle of Eurovision as cultural propaganda to show the world its “prettier face”, many queers around the world are stepping up to say there’s “no pride in Israeli apartheid”. For example, when Netta Barzilai played at London gay club Heaven recently, her show was protested with a vibrant, colourful, queer-led demo.

On such initiatives rest the hopes of queer Palestinians for liberation of all kinds.

Haneen Maikey is Director of alQaws for Sexual & Gender Diversity in Palestinian Society, a grassroots Jerusalem-based queer Palestinian political organisation

Dr Hilary Aked is a London-based writer, researcher and activist whose first book on the Israel lobby in the UK, based on their PhD thesis, will be published by Verso