KNEECAP are among a group of more than 1,100 artists calling for a boycott of Eurovision over Israel’s inclusion in the contest.
The Belfast rap trio are joined by the likes of Massive Attack, Peter Gabriel and Macklemore as signatories of an open letter from the campaign group No Music for Genocide.
As well as Kneecap, The Mary Wallopers and Eurovision winner Charlie McGettigan are among the other Irish acts to sign the letter.
Published on Tuesday, the letter says Eurovision is being used to ‘whitewash and normalise Israel’s genocide, siege and brutal military occupation against Palestinians’.
‘Passive silence is not an option’
No Music for Genocide expressed their appreciation to countries, including Ireland, for their ‘principled withdrawals’ from this year’s competition in Austria.
However, it said Israel broadcaster KAN should be banned from the competition, accusing Eurovision organisers the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) of hypocrisy.
“The EBU’s hypocritical responses to Russia’s and Israel’s crimes have removed any illusion of Eurovision’s claimed ‘neutrality’,” states the letter.
“In 2022, the EBU said that Russia’s presence would ‘bring the competition into disrepute’.
“Yet more than 30 months of genocide in Gaza — alongside ethnic cleansing and land theft in the besieged West Bank — aren’t considered sufficient to apply the same policy to Israel.
“How can any performer or Eurovision fan in good conscience participate at the contest’s next edition in Austria amidst US-Israeli plans for hyper-surveilled concentration camps in ‘New Gaza’? There are moments in time when passive silence is not an option.
“We refuse to be silent when Israel’s genocidal violence soundtracks and silences Palestinian lives. When children in Israeli prisons endure beatings for humming a tune. When all that’s left of nearly every stage, studio, bookshop and university in Gaza is piles of rubble, under which slaughtered bodies still await recovery and proper burial.
“As artists, we recognise our collective agency — and the power of refusal. We refuse to be silent. We refuse to be complicit. We call on others in our industry to join us. And we stand in solidarity with all principled efforts to end complicity in every industry.”
Other initial signatories include producer Brian Eno, Paul Weller and Paloma Faith as well as Danish former Eurovision winner Emmelie de Forest.
‘Not a war Israel started or wanted’
Meanwhile, a separate pro-Israel campaign group last week revealed more artists had signed their open letter opposing attempts to ban Israel from the competition.
Creative Community for Peace claimed some members of the entertainment community want Israel be banned ‘for responding to the greatest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust’.
“October 7 was a day in which a music festival meant to celebrate life was attacked by Hamas and saw 364 innocent civilians killed, hundreds maimed and brutalized, over 40 festivalgoers taken hostage, and many raped,” read the letter.
“Israel is fighting a war against a European Union-designated terrorist group that once again broke a ceasefire that day, and then went on to slaughter over 1,200 people.
“This current round of fighting is not a war that Israel wanted or started. To punish Israel would be an inversion of justice.”
Second-generation Irishman Boy George is among the new signatories to the letter, which was previously signed by Sharon Osborne, whose mother was of Irish descent.
Last week, a report from the UN said that between October 2023 and December 2025, more than 71,000 people were killed in Gaza, although it added that this was likely an underestimate given the collapse of health information and reporting systems.
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