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BBC Blasted for Choosing Anti-Israel Eurovision Contestant as Competition Rejects Calls to Boycott Jewish State
Olly Alexander in the music video for “Sweet Talker.” Photo: YouTube screenshot
The singer chosen by the BBC to represent the United Kingdom in next year’s Eurovision Song Contest has supported claims that Israel is committing genocide, ethnic cleansing, and “crimes against humanity.”
The BBC announced on Dec. 16 that pop singer Olly Alexander, 33, will compete on behalf of the UK at the international music competition, which will be held in Malmö, Sweden in May. The former frontman of the band Years and Years has also been nominated as an actor by the British Academy Film Awards.
In October, Alexander joined thousands in signing an open letter, penned by the LGBTQ activist group Voices4London, that accused Israel of perpetrating a genocide in and occupation of the Gaza Strip, as well as the “ethnic cleansing” of Palestinians. It further claimed that Israel is committing “unspeakable crimes against humanity” and has an “apartheid regime, which acts to ethnically cleanse the land” while “the Israeli military and Israeli settlers have continued to terrorize Palestinian people.” The letter also alleged that the “Israeli government continues to wipe out entire lineages of Palestinian families” and talked about “Zionist propaganda.”
The Israeli Embassy in the UK criticized the BBC for selecting Alexander for the Eurovision Song Contest after it was revealed that he signed the open letter.
“Clearly [Alexander] graduated from the Middle Eastern School of TikTok,” the embassy tweeted on Thursday. “We would be happy to arrange a trip for you to visit the #October7thMassacre sites in Israel, where the rights of LGBTQ+ are celebrated, protected, and cherished. Unfortunately, our neighbors can’t guarantee the same.” The message was reposted by Israel’s official X/Twitter account.
Campaign Against Antisemitism, a volunteer-based Jewish charity in the UK, also commented on the BBC’s pick on social media, posting, “When nearly seven in ten British Jews feel afraid to express their identity in public, [Alexander] must not be the person to represent our country.”
The BBC has been urged to drop Alexander as the UK’s act in the Eurovision Song Contest, but the public broadcaster has no plans to take any action against the singer since he signed the anti-Israel letter before he was chosen to represent Britain, according to The Telegraph.
The recent controversy surrounding next year’s Eurovision contest comes amid calls from musicians in Iceland to have Israel banned from the competition because of its ongoing war against Hamas terrorists in Gaza. However, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which organizes the contest, released a statement rejecting the demand to boycott Israel and reaffirmed the country’s participation in the competition.
Israel has yet to announce its representative for next year’s Eurovision Song Contest. The Jewish state has been competing in the international competition since 1973 and has won four times, most recently in 2018 with Netta Barzilai’s song Toy. This year’s representative from Israel, Noa Kirel, came in third place during the contest in Liverpool.
The post BBC Blasted for Choosing Anti-Israel Eurovision Contestant as Competition Rejects Calls to Boycott Jewish State first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Rights Group Files Lawsuit to Block Trump Deportations of Anti-Israel Protesters
Marco Rubio speaks after he is sworn in as Secretary of State by US Vice President JD Vance at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, DC, Jan. 21, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) filed a lawsuit challenging as unconstitutional the Trump administration’s actions to deport international students and scholars who protest or express support for Palestinian rights.
The lawsuit, filed on Saturday in the US District Court for the Northern District of New York, seeks a nationwide temporary restraining order to block enforcement of two executive orders signed by US President Donald Trump in the first month of his term.
The lawsuit comes after the detention of a Columbia University student, Mahmoud Khalil, a 30-year-old permanent US resident of Palestinian descent, whose arrest sparked protests this month.
Justice Department lawyers have argued that the US government is seeking Khalil’s removal because Secretary of State Marco Rubio has reasonable grounds to believe his activities or presence in the country could have “serious adverse foreign policy consequences.” Rubio on Friday said the United States will likely revoke visas of more students in the coming days.
Trump vowed to deport activists who took part in protests on US college campuses against Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza following the October 2023 attack by the Palestinian terrorists.
The ADC lawsuit was filed on behalf of two graduate students and a professor at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, who say their activism and support of the Palestinian people “has put them at serious risk of political persecution.”
“This lawsuit is a necessary step to preserve our most fundamental constitutional protections. The First Amendment guarantees the freedom of speech and expression to all persons within the United States, without exception,” said Abed Ayoub, national executive director of the ADC.
Chris Godshall-Bennett, the group’s legal director, said the litigation seeks immediate and long-term relief “to protect international students from any unconstitutional overreach that stifles free expression and deters them from fully engaging in academic and public discourse.”
The lawsuit centers on three Cornell University plaintiffs: a British-Gambian national and PhD student with a student visa; a US citizen PhD student working on plant science; and a US citizen novelist, poet, and professor in the Department of Literatures in English.
The post Rights Group Files Lawsuit to Block Trump Deportations of Anti-Israel Protesters first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Netanyahu Informs Shin Bet Chief to Vote on His Dismissal Next Week
Israel’s Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar speaks at Reichman University in Herzliya on Sunday, September 11, 2022. Photo: Screenshot
i24 News – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Ronen Bar, the head of the Shin Bet security agency, that he will bring a vote before his government to dismiss him next week.
The post Netanyahu Informs Shin Bet Chief to Vote on His Dismissal Next Week first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Houthis Claim to Attack US Aircraft Carrier, Retaliating for Strikes
Newly recruited fighters who joined a Houthi military force intended to be sent to fight in support of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, march during a parade in Sanaa, Yemen, Dec. 2, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah
i24 News – The Houthis claimed on Sunday that they targeted the aircraft carrier USS Harry Truman and other vessels in the northern Red Sea with 18 ballistic and cruise missiles and a drone. Military spokesperson Yahya Saree said that the US-led attacks against the Houthis on Saturday comprised of more than 47 airstrikes on seven governorates, with the death toll expected to rise.
“The Yemeni Armed Forces will not hesitate to target all American warships in the Red Sea and in the Arabian Sea in retaliation to the aggression against our country,” Saree said, vowing the Houthis “will continue to impose a naval blockade on the Israeli enemy and ban its ships in the declared zone of operations until aid and basic needs are delivered to the Gaza Strip.”
The post Houthis Claim to Attack US Aircraft Carrier, Retaliating for Strikes first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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