Zero Gravitas

Before I proceed further with this post, let me nail my colours to the mast: one's position on Palestine is an infallible litmus test of one's moral and intellectual courage. If you willfully ignore the plight of Palestine, look the other way, self-censor, or otherwise hold your tongue on the subject when the need or opportunity comes to speak out, your worth and potential as a moral, thinking human being will be greatly diminished, and whatever you have to say on other matters of concern or importance will be wreathed in the rank odour of hypocrisy.

What follows is a transcript of how 'our' ABC 'handled' the news that Twitter had suspended some pro-BDS accounts at the behest of the Israeli government to enable the Eurovision Song Contest to be staged in Tel Aviv without controversy. Radio National Breakfast presenter, Fran Kelly, a self-proclaimed "activist" (Wikipedia), and rated by Crikey as "one of the most influential media players in the country" (Wikipedia), conducted an interview with an Australian academic on the matter. Now I must confess, as a listener to Radio National, to never having heard Kelly show any indication of knowledge of, or concern over, Israeli brutalities in Palestine, so the way in which she conducted the interview came as no great surprise to me.

More importantly, what possessed the ABC to choose, as an interlocutor on this important issue, an associate professor in international relations at Sydney University, Anika Gauja, whose Twitter profile reads thus: "A/Prof politics USyd. Political parties, members, representation. Ocean swimmer, Eurovision fanatic, Farnham tragic, knife collector & wine student"?

It's clear from this that someone on RN made a decision to dispense with the substance of the matter - blatant Israeli pressure to shield from legitimate criticism its exploitation of Eurovision to burnish its increasingly tarnished image - and opt instead for a "Eurovision fanatic" with no obvious knowledge of, or concern for, Israel's escalating oppression of the Palestinian people. Questions abound: Who made that decision, and why? Why wasn't a BDS spokesperson interviewed? Or at least involved in the interview? What does this choice tell us about the prevailing culture of the ABC, lambasted, hilariously, by the Murdoch press as a hotbed of leftism? What does it tell us about red lines, self-censorship, and fear of pressure from the Israel lobby?

OK, so finally here's the transcript - with my interpolations in square brackets. Read it and weep for the ABC; for what the hell is going on in our neoliberal, corporatised universities; and for our hapless students of international relations and who knows what else:

Fran Kelly: Within a matter of weeks Australia will again take to the stage in the Eurovision Song Contest that's being held in Israel this year. Kate Miller Heidke will perform the song Zero Gravity in Tel Aviv. But the lead up to the contest has been overshadowed by widespread calls for musicians to boycott the event over Israel's policies towards the Palestinians. The effort has been gaining traction with international artists and other public figures. But overnight Twitter announced it had suspended a small network of accounts after complaints from Israel's Ministry of Strategic Affairs that fake accounts were promoting the boycott. This highlights once again the politicised nature of the world's biggest music competition. Anika Gauja is Associate Professor in International Relations at the University of Sydney, and she happens to be a huge Eurovision fan. So who's behind the push for the boycott of Eurovision in Israel? (Calls for Eurovision boycott, Radio National, abc.net.au, 3/5/19)

[Call me old-fashioned and out of touch here, but is there a new breed of academic out there who combines serious scholarship and an obsession with one or another manifestation of mind-numbing trivia? I'm fascinated! Can anyone, perhaps, provide me with other examples?]

Anika Gauja: The movement called the BDS movement - Boycott Divestment & Sanctions - which has been around since the mid 2000s and, as you mentioned, they're trying to highlight what they would say is Israeli war crimes or atrocities against the Palestinians in Israel.

["What they would say... "??? What, only them? Not our recognised repository of international law, the UN? Oh look, here's a snippet from the recently released UN Independent Commission of Inquiry's report on the Gaza border protests: "The Commission has reasonable grounds to believe that during the Great March of Return, Israeli soldiers committed violations of international human rights and humanitarian law. Some of those violations may constitute war crimes or crimes against humanity...? "In Israel"? No, in the occupied Gaza Strip.]

FK: And they've got some high profile people aboard in this camp.

AG: Yeah, yeah. Brian Eno signing a letter and... international celebrities but the European Broadcasting Union which is the body responsible for staging the Eurovision has remained absolutely steadfast in its opposition to the boycott. It basically says that boycotting Eurovision is not a political event and its an event that's geared toward promoting diversity, togetherness, compromise, peace, harmony, so boycotting something like that is boycotting the values and ethos of Eurovision.

[You're kidding me? Do you have any idea how grotesquely irrelevant this Eurovision PR patter is to the manifest horrors being perpetrated by the Israelis in OCCUPIED Palestine?]

FK: And that position has got some high profile support too from people like Stephen Fry.

AG: Exactly.

FK: Well, the EBU, which produces Eurovision, goes against the spirit of the contest celebrating the [inaudible] unity. Last month over 100 public figures endorsed this boycott. We've got this counter thing. Has it made any difference to any of the countries taking part in Eurovision?

[Well, why not interview one?]

AG: No, it hasn't. I mean... there have been protests in Australia when Australia ran its song selection contest, and Madonna is going to perform at the grand final this year, which is quite an interesting and unique event for somebody outside of Europe. There've been calls for her to boycott, but none of the nations officially participating have withdrawn as a result of those calls.

[Seriously, who gives a fuck about Madonna?]

FK: And what do you make of this announcement overnight from Twitter that they've suspended a small network of accounts after complaints by Israel? Just more politicisation, isn't it?

AG: Yeah, absolutely. I think that in terms of Eurovision this is probably quite unprecedented. There's always controversy in the run up to the contest, but to have Twitter come in and and censor social media accounts is very interesting.

["Very interesting"??? A blatant violation of free speech at the behest of a Jewish supremacist apartheid state is merely "very interesting"?]

FK: What does past behaviour tell us? Would you expect to see protests... at the Eurovision Song contest outside and would you expect to see protests on stage... ?

AG: I think that the security this year because of the BDS campaign is going to be absolutely unprecedented, so I would be very very surprised if there are protests outside. Inside I think it's a different matter. We have seen in recent years protesters or pranksters being able to storm the stage... so it is possible for people to compromise security.

FK: What about the contestants themselves though?

AG: What's more common is you have a more subtle process that's built into a performance or a song... Occasionally a comment will be made... which can be interpreted as political but its a sort of subversive process.

FK: Am I right in saying it happens on the election weekend?

AG: Yeah, yeah, this is terrible for me cause my 2 passions conflict and this year I've chosen to go to Israel for the contest rather than hang around for a federal election...

[Gobsmacking!]

PS 6/5/19: Now this FFS: "Prolonged fighting could overshadow Eurovision and potentially deter international travellers from coming in for the festive event." (Israel and Gaza exchange rocket fire as death toll mounts after month-long fighting lull, 5/5/19, 1:31pm, abc.net.au)