8 February, London and Manchester: Love Eurovision, hate apartheid! Protest the BBC

Friday, 8 February
5:30 pm
BBC Broadcasting House
Portland Place
London, UK
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/553956091749385/

Friday, 8 February
4:00 pm
Dock10
BBC Studios, MediaCityUK
Manchester, UK
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/818713415163258/

On Friday 8 February the BBC will be broadcasting “Eurovision: You Decide”, a show to select the UK entrant.

And we’ll be gathering for a party protest to say: NO to culture-washing, NO to pink-washing, NO to Eurovision being hosted in Apartheid Israel!

Come through! Bring flags, placards and energy for singing along to Palestine solidarity versions of Eurovision and pop classics!

For more information on the global Boycott Eurovision campaign: https://bdsmovement.net/boycott-eurovision-2019

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Love Eurovision, Hate Apartheid! Protest at the BBC

Join the protest at the Eurovision: You Decide event, taking place from 4pm on Friday 8th February at MediaCityUK, the BBC Headquarters in Salford Quays, calling on the BBC to withdraw from the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest hosted by Apartheid Israel. The demonstration will begin when the audience of the show arrives soon after 4pm and we invite you to join us for Palestinian music and a rally with Palestinian cultural figures that will run until 7pm, so people can come and participate after work.

The public will be choosing who goes through to the final in a live TV show, Eurovision: You Decide. We will urge contestants, hosts and BBC workers to heed Palestinian civil society’s call for the boycott of Eurovision hosted by Israel’s apartheid regime, which continues to massacre Palestinian protesters in besieged Gaza and imprison the Palestinian population under a decades-long illegal military occupation.

We are urging all participants follow the example of British group The Tuts, who courageously announced they had refused an invitation to enter the UK’s Eurovision contest. https://twitter.com/TheTutsBand/status/1088465070714167296 We are appealing to all the singers and songwriters to boycott the contest hosted by Israel, just as they would have boycotted the South African apartheid regime.

We are also calling for an end to the BBC’s complicity in “Brand Israel”, the Israeli government’s official policy of artwashing its crimes against the Palestinian people. Israel regularly uses culture to cover up, justify and distract from its oppressive regime of military occupation and apartheid against the Palestinian people.

Just days after Israel’s Eurovision win, Israeli forces massacred 62 Palestinians in Gaza, including six children, as they demonstrated for freedom and refugee rights. Since the Great Return March protests began on March 30th 2018, at least 205 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in the besieged Gaza Strip. More than 18,000 others have been injured, including thousands shot with live sniper fire.

Join the protest and take a stand against BBC artwashing apartheid.

Hosted by
Manchester Palestine Action
Manchester Palestine Solidarity Campaign
University of Manchester BDS Campaign
Liverpool Friends of Palestine
Sheffield Palestine Solidarity Campaign
Manchester Jewish Action for Palestine
Birmingham Palestine Action
London Palestine Action
Glasgow Palestine Action

Other Northern groups to be added

#BoycottEurovision2019

How to get there: Manchester’s tram network stops at MediaCityUK (zone 2). It takes 15 minutes from Manchester Piccadilly or ten minutes from Eccles Station.

BBC Studios, Media City UK at Dock 10
Salford M50 2NT

4pm-7pm
Friday 8th February