{"id":41370,"date":"2026-05-13T23:12:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T23:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/41370\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T23:12:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T23:12:09","slug":"irish-sitcom-writer-calls-eurovision-boycott-disgraceful-antisemitism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/41370\/","title":{"rendered":"Irish sitcom writer calls Eurovision boycott ‘disgraceful antisemitism’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Irish comedy writer Graham Linehan accused Ireland\u2019s public broadcaster of \u201cdisgraceful antisemitism<\/a>\u201d over its decision not to air this year\u2019s Eurovision Song Contest because of Israel\u2019s participation – even as his work will get prime airtime as a result.<\/p>\n

Instead of airing the annual international song contest\u2019s finale Saturday, which Ireland and four other nations have boycotted this year over Israel\u2019s participation, the country\u2019s public broadcaster, RT\u00c9, is scheduled to air an episode of \u201cFather Ted,\u201d a beloved Irish sitcom that Linehan co-created.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am disgusted that Father Ted is being used as a fig leaf to cover RTE\u2019s disgraceful antisemitism,\u201d Linehan wrote in a post on X on Tuesday. He later added that the broadcaster was \u201cturning Father Ted into an antisemitic dogwhistle.\u201d<\/p>\n

Linehan, who has become a prominent anti-transgender activist in recent years, also posted an online petition on Monday calling for the resignation of RT\u00c9 Director General Kevin Bakhurst over the broadcaster\u2019s decision not to air the Eurovision finale because of Israel\u2019s participation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did not give my permission for Father Ted to be used as a prop in an antisemitic political gesture. I object to it in the strongest possible terms,\u201d Linehan wrote. \u201cThis is not the Ireland<\/a> I know. This is not the Ireland that gave Father Ted to the world. RT\u00c9\u2019s institutional antisemitism is poisoning Irish public life, normalizing Jew-hatred under the guise of solidarity, and it must be confronted.\u201d<\/p>\n

Linehan\u2019s petition, which had garnered over 4,000 signatures by Wednesday afternoon, comes months after RT\u00c9 announced plans to boycott the competition in December, writing in a statement at the time that its participation \u201cremains unconscionable given the appalling loss of lives in Gaza<\/a> and the humanitarian crisis there.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Israel\u2019s Eurovision<\/a> contestant Noam Bettan was met by chants of \u201cstop the genocide\u201d as he performed his song \u201cMichelle\u201d in Vienna. Bettan\u2019s semifinal qualified him to perform in Saturday\u2019s finale, where he will compete against entrants from 25 other countries.<\/p>\n

Bettan told the BBC that he was shocked by the protests and hoped that the public broadcasters of Iceland, Ireland, Spain, the Netherlands, and Slovenia would return for next year\u2019s competition.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s bad for them,\u201d Bettan said. \u201cThey\u2019re losing the opportunity to be in this amazing experience. So I am full of hope that next year they can sing and spread their light.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Irish comedy writer Graham Linehan accused Ireland\u2019s public broadcaster of \u201cdisgraceful antisemitism\u201d over its decision not to air…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":41371,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20858],"tags":[3312,24298,20859,20863,20860,3240],"class_list":{"0":"post-41370","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eurovision","8":"tag-antisemitism","9":"tag-boycott","10":"tag-eurovision","11":"tag-eurovision-song-contest","12":"tag-eurovision-song-contest-2026","13":"tag-ireland"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41370"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41370\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}