The BBC have made a catastrophic error of judgement in the way they're handling Israel's Eurovision participation

I mentioned on Tuesday night that I watched the first few minutes of the Ten O'Clock News because it was on immediately after the first Eurovision semi-final, and I was struck by how it was the first time since the genocide started that I had seen the BBC actually do their job properly and lay bare for viewers the horrors that Israel is unleashing in Gaza.  However, even in that programme there was an incident that caused the BBC to be severely (and rightly) criticised.  Jeremy Bowen felt the need to tie himself up in knots in the introduction to his interview with the UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini by pointing out that Israel claim UNRWA has been infiltrated by Hamas, but that nevertheless he felt this was the sort of person he should be speaking to.  The BBC clearly believe that Israeli objections, however unfounded, must always be generously acknowledged in absolutely every situation and circumstance.

OK, so in that case what about acknowledging the objections of those who think it is outrageous that Israel are allowed to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest while in the middle of committing genocide on the people of a neighbouring country?  Surely if the BBC, along with their colleagues in the EBU, decided to allow the participation to go ahead, the Bowen precedent meant that they at least needed to put their decision in context and acknowledge how controversial it is?  I thought it was downright sinister last night when the BBC commentators introduced Israel with the usual fluff about the singer's background and didn't acknowledge the elephant in the room even in passing.  Indeed it would have been reasonable to expect the commentators to treat their viewers like adults and explain that there was booing in the hall, but that the producers had made the decision to artificially remove it with technology.

Scott Mills and Rylan Clark are likeable characters who speak to viewers like friends, and yet in one moment they squandered that trust completely and left no doubt that they were on a mission to deceive in service to a pro-Israel agenda.  I suspect they may even have made the decision themselves to act as if the Gaza issue didn't exist, because they did the exact same thing last year, while Graham Norton (who commentated on the grand final) at least mentioned the controversy briefly, which suggests that some discretion for individual commentators is permitted.

Israel have intentionally selected a singer who survived the 7th October attacks.  They've done that to tell a story that justifies genocide to the European public, in much the same manner that Nazi Germany pumped out antisemitic feature films to justify the extermination of Jews.  The way that the BBC and the EBU facilitated and assisted that genocidal storytelling exercise last night was nothing short of nauseating.