JJ, from Austria, stands on the stage with his trophy after winning the Grand Final of the 69th Eurovision Song Contest in Basel, Switzerland, May 18, 2025
THE BBC was called on yesterday to follow a host of national broadcasters and boycott the Eurovision Song Contest, after organisers voted to include Israel despite its ongoing slaughter in Gaza.
The European Broadcasting Union’s (EBU) initiative has already led to Spain, Slovenia and the Netherlands withdrawing, with Ireland’s national broadcaster RTE the latest to join the boycott.
Ireland premier Micheal Martin said he “fully understands” RTE’s boycott as “an act of solidarity with those journalists who were killed in breach of international humanitarian law during the war in Gaza.”
Noting RTE’s editorial independence, Tanaiste Simon Harris said: “By way of context, we’ve seen hundreds of journalists killed throughout this horrific conflict.
“We still today see a situation where there’s not free access by Israel for the media to get in to actually see the atrocities that have happened in Gaza and you can’t just forget or ignore the fact that a genocide has taken place in relation to Palestine.”
The decision split Northern Ireland’s leaders as they joined the British-Irish Council in Wales yesterday, with First Minister Michelle O’Neill making clear she “absolutely agrees with the decision.”
“I think it’s a right and appropriate decision to take,” she said.
“This is the biggest humanitarian crisis of our time, when genocide prevails — and I think countries need to take action that actually sends a very strong message, and I think this is another one of those messages.”
…
Adding his voice to the chorus calling for the BBC to withdraw from the contest, Scottish Greens culture spokesman Patrick Harvie, said: “This is a shameful decision and a dark day for the European Broadcasting Union.
“Once a symbol of unity and hope across Europe, they have turned the Eurovision Song Contest into a pink-washing front for war criminals in Israel.
“There can be no place for genocide enablers on the Eurovision stage, which is supposed to celebrate love and diversity.
“The atrocities inflicted against Palestinians in Gaza are among the worst crimes of this century and cannot be ignored and discarded in the name of entertainment.
Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.UK Foreign Minister David Lammy confirms that UK government and military are active participants in Israel’s genocides and that the F-35 parts that they suspended from supplying to Israel are instead simply diverted via the United States. He says see https://youtu.be/QILgUHrdWREOrcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.
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The head of the Kamal Adwan Hospital, Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya. [dr.hussam73/Instagram]
The Gaza Health Ministry on Friday reminded the international community of the case of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, as the first anniversary of his arrest by Israel approaches, urging action to disclose his fate and secure the release, Anadolu reports.
Abu Safiya was arrested on Dec. 27, 2024, when Israeli forces stormed the Kamal Adwan Hospital, detaining him at gunpoint.
In October, the Amnesty International, citing a lawyer who visited Abu Safiya and other detainees, said he had been subjected to abuse and other forms of ill-treatment.
“We appeal to the countries of the world to secure the release of Abu Safiya, disclose his fate, and provide him with protection under international law,” the head of Gaza’s Health Ministry, Munir Al-Bursh, said on Telegram.
Al-Bursh stressed that a doctor should never be a target, and those who abduct doctors are in fact abducting the very spirit of justice.
He added that Abu Safiya “was not detained for carrying a weapon or harming anyone, but because he practiced his humanitarian profession, carried his stethoscope and compassionate heart, and supported the lives of people when the world abandoned them.”
Al-Bursh said Abu Safiya was well known in Gaza’s hospitals and operating rooms and stood by the wounded during the Israeli assault before being arrested, barred from seeing his family, and denied the opportunity to continue his medical role that helped save lives.
Al-Bursh called for Israel to be held accountable for “the crimes of abducting doctors and paramedics and torturing them.”
He urged international and human rights organizations to act to protect medical teams in the Gaza Strip and secure Abu Safiya’s release.
Israel has killed more than 70,000 people, mostly women and children, and injured nearly 171,000 others in attacks in Gaza since October 2023, which have continued despite a ceasefire two months ago.
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Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpA
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United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres gives a speech in New York City, United States. on Monday, May 05, 2025.[Selçuk Acar – Anadolu Agency]
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he will “not shut up” while speaking out on the future of the two-state solution to the Palestinian issue, stressing that he will continue to push for political progress, Anadolu reports.
His remarks came during the 2025 UN Reham Al-Farra (RAF) Fellowship session on Friday, where he warned young journalists that the world is facing a “perfect storm” of conflicts, climate chaos, deepening inequality and unregulated artificial intelligence.
The UN chief said he would not give up on efforts to advance a political path forward, stressing that avoiding a return to past violence is “not enough.”
“It is absolutely essential that we move to Phase Two, and that the final result is the two-state solution… There will be no peace in the Middle East without the self-determination of the Palestinian people.”
He added that even if the Security Council cannot deliver such progress, he “will not shut up” if developments move away from international law and the UN Charter.
‘A perfect storm’: Conflicts, climate and a paralyzed Security Council
Earlier in his address, Guterres painted a bleak global picture, saying today’s international landscape is dramatically more dangerous than when he took office in 2017.
He cited the Russia-Ukraine war, the “level of death and destruction” in Gaza, escalating violence in Sudan, Myanmar and the Sahel, and the spread of terrorism across Africa.
He sharply criticized the Security Council’s inability to act, calling it “paralyzed” and structurally outdated, with no permanent representation from Africa or Latin America and a veto system that “protects violations of international law.”
Climate overshoot: ‘My generation has failed’
On the climate crisis, Guterres delivered one of his starkest warnings, declaring: “My generation has failed in relation to climate action.”
He said the world is heading toward a temperature overshoot above 1.5°C, with devastating consequences for human health, food security and global stability. Current national emissions pledges amount to only 10% reductions by 2035, far below the 60% required, he added.
Calls for Global South representation and institutional reform
Answering questions from fellows, Guterres said the UN is pushing for reforms to strengthen the voice of the Global South, but such changes ultimately depend on member states, adding: “Power is never distributed. Power is taken.”
He noted that emerging economies – Brazil, India, China, Indonesia and others – represent a growing share of global output, while global governance structures still reflect the world of 1945.
Humanitarian funding collapse and widening inequalities
Guterres also warned that reduced contributions to development and humanitarian aid, including cuts by the United States and other donors, have resulted in a “deep disaster” for communities facing hunger, lack of health services and collapsing essential infrastructure.
To adapt, UN agencies are consolidating supply chains, procurement and logistics to preserve as many resources as possible for crisis-affected populations.
A message to young people: Don’t give up, transform the system
Addressing widespread youth distrust in multilateral institutions, he urged young journalists to fight for reform rather than abandon the system.
“There is no solution to global issues without strong multilateral institutions… The answer is not to get rid of them, but to transform them,” he added.
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Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpA
Moments before Israeli soldiers kill two Palestinian men in Jenin (AP/Alamy)
Failure to air footage of Israeli soldiers executing unarmed Palestinians shows the corporation’s true bias
When it was revealed in November 2025 that a BBC programme edited a section of Donald Trump’s speech on 6 January 2021 to reinforce the idea that the freshly deposed president was calling on his supporters to take violent action at the US Capitol, both the director general and head of news resigned and the corporation immediately apologised for its behaviour.
Shortly after this, the BBC was guilty of a far less dramatic, but equally revealing dodgy edit that will lead to no resignations and no apology because, far from undermining the BBC’s editorial values, it’s an everyday expression of the corporation’s deployment of “due impartiality” when it comes to reporting Israeli violence.
On 27 November, Israeli forces executed two unarmed Palestinian men in Jenin in the occupied West Bank, an event captured in full on CCTV and replayed on headlines across the globe.
The BBC reported the story across all its news platforms, including on its main TV news bulletin that night. Yet the BBC cut away just before the soldiers opened fire. “We’re going to lose the pictures at this moment,” reporter Jon Donnison said on air.
The BBC didn’t “lose the pictures”; it decided deliberately not to show them. Its own guidelines say: “In the immediate aftermath of an event involving death, suffering or distress, the use of more graphic material may be justified to provide a reasonable account of the full horror.”
Moreover, Donnison went out of his way to qualify the actions of the soldiers saying that the men “appear to be surrendering” and then “appear” to be ordered back into a building from where “Israeli soldiers appear to open fire and shoot them dead at point-blank range”.
Other news outlets, however, transmitted pictures of the whole assassination and even inside Israel itself, Haaretz used far more direct language in its reporting: “Israeli Border Police officers were filmed on Thursday, fatally shooting two Palestinians in the West Bank city of Jenin after they had surrendered”. Neither the word “appear”, nor any conditional phrases are used anywhere in the story.
Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.Vote Labour for Genocide.
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Britain’s Chief rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, addresses the crowd during a ‘Vigil for Israel’ opposite the entrance to Downing Street, the official residence of Britain’s Prime Minister, in London on October 9, 2023 [HENRY NICHOLLS/AFP via Getty Images]
The leader of the UK Green Party, Zack Polanski, has publicly accused the Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis of failing to represent British Jews, saying instead that the Rabbi “speaks in the interests of defending the Israeli government.” The comments come amid rising tensions over Israel’s genocide in Gaza and intensifying debate within British Jewish communities over what constitutes legitimate communal leadership.
Polanski made the remarks on The Rest Is Politics, hosted by Alastair Campbell and Rory Stewart. Though describing himself as “proudly Jewish but not religious,” he said he feels “less safe” in the UK because of what he sees as efforts to conflate anti-Semitism with anti‑Zionism.
“I am outraged that there are British communal organisations — in fact, I’ll go further — we have a Chief Rabbi who I think has overstepped the mark many times. He is not speaking for the British Jewish community,” said Polanski.
“He is certainly not speaking for me,” Polanski added. “I don’t think he’s speaking for the wider community.”
Continuing his comments about the Rabbi’s support for Israel, Polanski said: “He is clearly speaking in the interests of defending the Israeli government. As a personal view, he is totally entitled to do that, and I’m totally entitled to disagree with him. But for someone with the role of Chief Rabbi to politicise what is happening in Israel as a defence of the Jewish community in Britain, I think, is deeply damaging.”
Polanski’s remarks reflect growing unease within parts of the British Jewish community and wider civil society about the use of religious leadership to advance the political agenda of the Israeli state.
Rabbi Mirvis has in recent years repeatedly framed criticism of Israel including opposition to its Gaza genocide, as inseparable from threats to Jewish safety. He has publicly condemned UK government actions that critics interpret as pressure on Israel, intervened in domestic political debates over Israel’s assault on Gaza, and argued that anti‑Zionism often equates to anti-Semitism.
For instance, in September 2024 he decried the UK government’s decision to suspend some arms‑export licences to Israel as undermining a “close strategic ally” and feeding “falsehoods” that Israel had breached international law.
In 2025 he publicly rejected government plans to recognise a Palestinian state, calling the move a “profound betrayal” that would encourage Hamas and imperil Jewish safety.
He has also insisted that “anti‑Zionism is the new anti-Semitism,” arguing that Judaism and Zionism are inextricably linked, a stance that many British Jews contest.
Polanski is not alone in questioning whether institutions such as the office of the Chief Rabbi adequately represent the full range of Jewish opinion in Britain, particularly those critical of Israeli government policy. Organisations such as Independent Jewish Voices (IJV) long argued that established communal bodies fail to reflect the diversity of political perspectives within the Jewish population.
Polanski said that his own views on Israel have evolved after witnessing the genocide in Gaza, and that advocating for Palestinian rights has attracted increasing numbers of Jewish members to the Green Party.
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Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.Vote Labour for Genocide.