Palestinian activist Shahd Abusalama partnered with London Palestine Action on Monday to release a 2-minute parody of ‘Papa Don’t Preach’, urging Madonna to boycott the Eurovision Song Contest.
This is another of many calls to boycott the Eurovision, held this year in Tel Aviv, Israel.
The song highlights many of the abuses inflicted by the state of Israel on the Palestinian people.
Abusalama is filmed walking against a London backdrop, singing: “Israel’s been flouting international law / and human rights lie trampled on the floor / Just like South Africa / time to boycott apartheid / So please Madonna don’t go to Eurovision / Madonna don’t go, make the right decision.”
According to PinkNews, Abusalama said: “On the day we filmed this video, Palestinians in Gaza including my family were being bombed indiscriminately yet again by Israel’s apartheid regime. If Madonna performs in Israel, crossing the international picket line, she will be helping to normalise this brutality.”
She continued: “Until Israel ceases its decades-long systematic denial of Palestinians rights, dispossession, land appropriation and war crimes, it must be treated as the pariah state it is by all people of conscience around the world.”
Madonna is set to perform two songs during the break in which performers are judged for the event. However, the Pop star has yet to sign a contract solidifying her appearance.
According to Eurovision’s executive supervisor Jon Ola Sand, “the European Broadcasting Union has never confirmed Madonna as an act … If we do not have a signed contract she cannot perform on our stage.”
Numerous LGBT+ activist groups have called for a boycott of the Eurovision. In Ireland, Dublin LGBT+ bar ‘Street 66’ is running an event on the night of the contest’s final.
The Facebook event page states that they are “[joining] and promoting the call to boycott Eurovision 2019 in Israel and Tel Aviv Pride help expose the Israeli government’s reprehensible co-opting of queer rights as a public relations tool to hide its crimes against Palestinians. They strike a blow to its shameful pinkwashing strategy to maintain its apartheid regime and its decades-old colonization and occupation of Palestine.”
In a statement, Madonna has reaffirmed her decision to play at the Eurovision, saying she would not “stop playing music to suit someone’s political agenda.”
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