4 countries to boycott Eurovision due to Israel’s continued inclusion

So now the dust has settled we know that 5 countries are boycotting Eurovision and 35 are attending.

The ones taking part are Albania, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Norway, Poland, Portugal, San Marino, Serbia, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine and the United Kingdom.

The funny thing is that despite the change to the rules, Israel will probably still get the most fan votes. People don't like bullies and as with last year, this will be another opportunity to stand up to them.

No idea what you're talking about. I know exactly which poster I was referring to.

The posters response referred to this not being a taking sides issue though

not the more nuanced thoughts you have made about unknown individual posters

But the poster was making assumptions about people posting on this thread and making completely unwarranted and unsubstantiated ljnks to other people. I have nothing to do with awarding Ms Rachel 'antisemite if the year', I know fuck all about her. But apparently I am on the same side as the people who made the award, people I also have no links to. Anyone with any intelligence does not fit neatly into one of only 2 tribes. Anyone who thinks this has certainly spent no time on the Jewish 'side' where there is rich & dynamic diversity of thought.

Obviously
There are those that support Israel’s actions and those that don’t.
There are those that support the right to boycott and those that don’t

So yes….sides

"a side"? Is this a fucking football game to you?

Everexpanding used an idiom well known across the English speaking world.

Perhaps it's just another distraction technique, similar to the repeated accusations of antisemitism with no evidence. It wastes a persons time defending "their honour" and trying to decipher circular nonsensical arguments.

Everexpanding ignore the accusations coming from a side that awarded kids presenter Ms Rachel antisemite of the year for daring to have empathy with Palestinian children.

Really confused by this recent angle

first there’s no such thing as a standard phrase and now everyone’s heard of it
how does that work ?!?!

oh I see now ……it’s Aparently meaningless to this situation….

again
It is
Of course it is
@Everexpanding used the term exactly as it’s intended

Sometimes it’s just fine to just not know stuff and even better to admit the mistake.

So Wierd how threads go sometimes

should have tagged but forgot who to 😂

Yes I think we have all heard the phrase. The point is its completely meaningless particularly in reference to oneself. Very few people are in a position to say they are without prejudice.

I googled it

The phrase "antisemite bone" refers to a modern idiomatic expression regarding inherent prejudice

Idiomatic Expression
The phrase "not an antisemitic bone in [one's] body" is an idiom used to declare that a person is completely free of antisemitic prejudice.
The user may be referencing actor John Cusack's 2019 apology, in which he used this exact phrase while retracting a shared "harmful" image that deployed anti-Jewish stereotypes.
Similarly, the phrase "bred in the bone" can be used to describe antisemitism as an inherent or deeply ingrained aspect of a specific ideology

That was unexpected 😂

There's no such thing as an antisemitic bone.

I won't take lectures on antisemitism from someone who invokes the Livingstone formulation.

I am not linking all Jews to the actions of the Israeli government. I am doing precisely the opposite.

What an appalling, insidious article. Its not Israel making itself the victim. Hamas did that when it tortured, maimed, raped, kidnapped and murdered Israelis, and others on 7 October. No empathy for them, right?.

But, this is not actually about Israel is it? Its about Jews in the UK. Its not evidence of Israel's so-called crimes that makes them uncomfortable. Its that they know, because they have seen and experienced it, that an uncomplicated uncritical pro-Palestinian narrative merges all to easily with antisemitism as evidenced by the huge surge in attacks on Jews in the UK and restricting of normal life and opportunities for them. Yes many have friends and family in Israel, most Jews here know someone directly affected by 7 October. Its not that art is a threat, its that the culture around protest, the repetition of blood libels, the calls for the desteuction of Israel are all part of a narrative that tells Jewish people that their opinions and feelings are not valid and are not going to be listened to. Its spectacularly disingenuous to claim that its a neutral act to put art from gaza on the walls of a London hospital. I wonder what other countries are represented on the walls of UK hospitals? Uighyur children perhaps?

With thanks Ellen for this
I think it’s worth showing again

because this is a piece of artwork that had to be taken down

I’m disgusted with those who complained

‘ Even with Palestinian children’s art, Israel must make itself the victim
Mon 6 Mar 2023

Visitors view artworks made by Palestinian children during an exhibition at Al-Qattan Center for the Child, in Gaza City, Aug. 8, 2021.
About 120 children participated in the exhibition with their artworks.
JVL Introduction
UK psychotherapist Gwyn Daniels a member of the UK Palestine Mental Health Network and a patron of the Palestine Trauma Centre which works in Gaza.

She writes here about the pressure exerted by UK Lawyers for Israel on Chelsea and Westminster Hospital School to remove an exhibition of art produced by Palestinian children in Gaza (also covered in our earlier post A new moral panic about “antisemitism?)

The reason: “some Jewish patients… said that they felt vulnerable and victimised by this display” i.e. British Jews should not be troubled by discomfort when confronted by the consequences of Israel’s actions…

This approach, believes Daniels “exactly mirrors the Israeli view that Palestinian children have to be responded to as if they are not really children at all and thus merit no empathy, and that sympathy should be reserved for those who feel threatened by them.”
___
With thanks to Middle East Eye for permission to repost.
This article was originally published by Middle East Eye on Fri 3 Mar 2023. Read the original here.

Even with Palestinian children's art, Israel must make itself the victim
The pressure exerted on a London hospital to remove artwork by Gaza children illustrates the length to which Israel’s friends will go to whitewash its abuses and erase Palestinian voices
by Gwyn Daniel, Middle East Eye
Here are two seemingly incompatible scenarios.

The first is the horrendous and unconstrained violence currently being unleashed on Palestinian citizens, their homes, towns and villages by Israeli settlers whose representatives now occupy key positions in the Israeligovernment.
Israeli commentators have used words such as “pogrom” and “Kristallnacht”to describe the murder and destruction inflicted on unprotected civilians and their property.

The second is an episode far away in a genteel part of London, where a British pro-Israel charity has somehowmanaged to pressure the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital into removing from one of its corridors an exhibition of art by Palestinian children from the Gaza Strip.
The UK Lawyers for Israel group submitted a complaint to the hospital it said “on behalf of some Jewish patients, who said that they felt vulnerable and victimised by this display”. A UKLFI director commented: “We are pleased that the display has been removed and that the hospital has responded positively to its patients’ complaints.”

But what could possibly be a rationale for Palestinian children’s art, with its expressions of hopes and dreams, of community, of love of the land, of fear and suffering, to be perceived as such a threat to the equanimity of a few Jewish supporters of Israel that it had to be removed?

In my view, one connecting thread is a familiar pattern: the more extreme and violent Israel’s behaviour and the more human rights violations it commits, the harder it has to work to portray itself to the outside world as a victim (with “the right to defend itself”) – and the more assiduously do its defenders in the UK and elsewhere attempt to neutralise dissent by evoking victimhood or distress among the wider Jewish population.

If the usual method of accusing individuals or institutions of antisemitism does not quite fit, then the argument is used that British Jews should not be troubled by discomfort when confronted by the consequences of Israel’s actions.

Representations of suffering
It is entirely understandable that many Jews who have strong attachments to Israel experience distress and discomfort when faced with evidence of its crimes. What is unacceptable is that pro-Israel bodies in the UK seize upon these experiences in order to close down representations of suffering or depictions of such crimes.

The complaint about the exhibition of children’s art is a perfect illustration of “unchilding”, containing as it does the insinuation that this art is both a threat in its own right to Jewish citizens’ peace of mind and also serves as the pawn of adults with nefarious intentions’

i haven't posted the full article Ellen tagged but it’s definately worth a read

If we are to allow art and music to thrive unhindered then we should allow it
Whatever it is
It seems art isn’t allowed by some in our own country when it suits them !

Bloody hard work on here sometimes... 😊