The umbrella body for Jewish organisations in Flanders has strongly objected to a union protest on the VRT television channel during the Eurovision semi-final on Thursday.
At the start of Thursday’s broadcast of the semi-final, the Flemish public channel was interrupted, and a message in white letters on a black background appeared. The message read: “This is a union action. We condemn the human rights violations by the State of Israel. The State of Israel also infringes on press freedom. Therefore, we interrupt this broadcast. #CeaseFireNow #StopGenocideNow.”
The protest was part of the controversy sparked by Israel’s participation in the 68th edition of the European song contest, held in Malmö, Sweden. Critics have condemned Israel's inclusion as “complicity with genocide,” amid the offensive by Benjamin Netanyahu’s government in the Gaza Strip to “annihilate” Hamas.
The Forum der Joodse Organisaties (FJO) criticised the union, stating: “Not only did they transform an entertainment programme into a platform for indoctrination and political action, but the text blatantly displayed absolute bias.” The forum noted that the message made no mention of the 7 October attack by Hamas, although it said it would have condemned the protest “even if the text had achieved a degree of balance.”
According to official Israeli sources, over 1,139 people died from the 7 October 2023 attack, most of them civilians. Since then, 34,909 people have been killed, including 14,500 children, in retaliatory attacks in Palestine by the Israeli military, according to Hamas.
The FJO also rejected the claim that Israel violates press freedom, sparked by the forced closure of the operations of the Qatar-based news channel Al Jazeera in Israel.
“Israel has the freest press in the entire Middle East,” the FJO said, adding however that, as a nation at war, it needs to impose limits on incitement and the spread of hatred to protect its citizens.
