Irish cartoonist Harry Burton, who drew widespread attention with a recent piece criticising Israel’s participation in next year’s Eurovision Song Contest, said allowing Israel to compete despite its genocide in Gaza is wrong and that in fact it should be banned from all cultural and sporting events.
The European Broadcasting Union's December 4 decision to allow Israel to compete in next year’s Eurovision in Vienna has sparked backlash across the continent.
Citing Israel's deadly attacks on Palestinians and the ongoing attacks and the man-made famine in Gaza, national broadcasters of Spain, the Netherlands, Ireland, Slovenia, and Iceland have all announced that they will withdraw from the contest in protest. Other countries could follow.
The cartoon by Burton, 37, for The Irish Examiner, came just days after the much-criticised decision to allow Israel to participate.
The December 6 cartoon shows an Israeli singer, microphone and flag in hand, clad in blue under a spotlight. At the foot of her dress, however, are red bloodstains, and surrounding her, past the bright lights and shrouded in darkness, is the ruined landscape of Gaza, with little but rubble left after Israel’s two-year-plus assault.
Burton said the cartoon was a reaction to Israel’s entry in the upcoming Eurovision, as the words "Eurovision ‘26" on the top left of the piece clearly show.
"So it is like a fictional Israeli singer. I made sure that it was not somebody that had sang for them before," he told Anadolu.
"I wanted to convey that you had a Eurovision singer singing like … the spotlight will come down on her, and all around her in the darkness is the destruction of Gaza, the Israeli destruction of Gaza, and what they have done."
The way Israel is able to take part in Eurovision after what it did to Palestine, while also committing a genocide, is "wrong," he said.
'I feel very honored and lucky’
The Dublin-based cartoonist argued that Israel should not only be barred from Eurovision but also from all cultural and sporting events.
"If Russia can be barred from sport events for their invasion of Ukraine, how can we look at Israel and not do the same thing?" he said.
Just days after the start of the Russia-Ukraine war in February 2022, Russia faced such bans.
Burton added: "The actions of the Israeli state on Gaza are just so horrendous. The idea that we're just going to allow ourselves for things to go on normally, in my opinion, I think that is ridiculous."
Burton, who has been drawing since he was five, also sold a piece to raise funds for Gaza. The July 27 piece, done in a more realistic style, shows a Gazan mother holding her child, visibly so emaciated from the ongoing famine that his spine shows.
"A child’s backbone … Where’s ours?" says the caption on the piece, which Burton later said was sold for €500 (about $585).
"I drew a cartoon in response to the ongoing famine in Gaza. I remember a lot of people responded to it, and I decided to sell the original and use all the proceeds to go to Medical Aid for Palestinians," he said.
He added: "I think I could do a lot more, really, in terms of charity, I do not think I've done enough. I give what I can."
Touching on the importance of raising the issue of Palestine, Burton said that "it is just there" for him, adding that he has always felt this way towards Palestine, a sentiment shared by many in Ireland.
Burton said when he sees something in the news about Palestine, he feels it is important to raise awareness.
"If I can somehow convey how I feel about it and show my support and solidarity to Palestine through drawing, I feel honored and lucky to do so," added the cartoonist.
Since October 2023, the Israeli army has killed more than 70,700 people in Gaza, most of them women and children, and injured over 171,000 others in a brutal assault that has left the enclave in ruins.
