Mogwai, Primal Scream and Young Fathers are among more than 1,000 artists who have called for a boycott of the Eurovision Song Contest due to the participation of Israel.
The country is facing a charge of genocide at the International Court of Justice following its assault on Gaza in which at least 73,000 people have died, with an estimated 80% of them civilians.
A United Nations report found that 70% of those killed in residential buildings or similar housing were women and children.
A verdict in the case is not expected for several years, but Israel's actions have been described as genocide by the International Association of Genocide Scholars, Amnesty International, Médecins sans Frontières, a UN Commission of Inquiry and others.
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The country has competed in the Eurovision Song Contest since 1974 but there have been increasing calls for it to be banned as Russia was following the invasion of Ukraine.
Iceland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Slovenia, and Spain have all announced they will withdraw from the 2026 edition, which will be held in Vienna, Austria and a group of more than 1,100 artists have thrown their support behind a boycott in an open letter.
Signatories include Primal Scream, Mogwai and Youth Fathers; as well as the likes of Kneecap, Paul Weller, Macklemore, Peter Gabriel and former Eurovision winners Emmelie de Forest and Charlie McGettigan.
Amble Scuse, Broken Chanter and Tommy Perman are other Scottish signatories.
The open letter states: "As musicians and cultural workers, many living within the reaches of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), we reject Eurovision being used to whitewash and normalise Israel’s genocide, siege and brutal military occupation against Palestinians.
"We stand in solidarity with Palestinian calls for public broadcasters, performers, screening party organisers, crew, and fans to boycott Eurovision until the EBU bans complicit Israeli broadcaster KAN.
"We applaud the principled withdrawals of the Spanish, Irish, Icelandic, Slovenian, and Dutch broadcasters, and the many national selection finalists committing to refuse to go to Eurovision. Just as artists stood against oppression in South Africa, we stand together now.
"Apartheid Israel’s president Isaac Herzog – named in South Africa’s submission to the International Court of Justice for inciting to genocide – has played a leading role in lobbying broadcasters not to ban Israel from the contest, the world’s most-watched live music event.
"The EBU's hypocritical responses to Russia’s and Israel’s crimes have removed any illusion of Eurovision's claimed “neutrality”. 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.
"No stage for genocide. #BoycottEurovision."
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