Revoke Netta Barzilai’s EuroPride invitation, organisations urge

In a letter to junior minister for equality, Rebecca Buttigieg, and to Allied Rainbow Communities, the organisers of the EuroPride, a number of Maltese organisations expressed their disappointment and anger over the invitation extended to Netta Barzilai to take part in the Malta EuroPride concert. This, the organisations say, is due to the fact that the invitation runs counter to what Pride stands for.

Netta, is an Israeli singer-songwriter and musician, who won the 2018 Eurovision song contest with her controversial song "Toy." Due to her support for the Israeli apartheid regime, the organisations have expressed that they do not want Netta Barzilai to attend this event.

According to the groups, Barzilai frequently took part in Israeli official measures to pinkwash the oppression, massacres, and systematic eviction of Palestinians from their own land while also projecting Israel as a "free" and "democratic" state. According to the organisations, Israel utilises every instrument at its disposal to suffocate the Palestinians, including cultural devices like Netta Barzilai to erase its bloody reputation on the global arena.

As a result, Netta Barzilai is one of those people who are the focus of the "Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions" campaign that the Palestinian civil society has called for. Palestinian civil society wants the world to exert pressure on the Apartheid state of Israel through boycotts and sanctions against all those who are somehow involved in its actions, similar to how the Apartheid regime in South Africa was overthrown in the 1990s after international boycotts and sanctions.

In June, the Green Party's Deputy Chair, Mina Jack Tolu had also called for the withdrawal of Netta's invitation, citing her reputation for being active in pinkwashing events.

The organisations came to the conclusion that it is a tremendous paradox that a celebration of love and equality like Pride would include those who support the racism, murders, and ethnic cleansing committed by the Apartheid state of Israel.

The joint press statement was signed by Moviment Graffitti, Aditus, MGRM, Żminijietna - Voice of the Left, and President Emeritus Marie Louise Coleiro Preca.