Member's statement: Antisemitism: Belfast Synagogue and Eurovision Song Contest

Member's statement by Dr Steve Aiken OBE on 19 May 2025.

MLA

Dr Steve Aiken OBE

Party at the time

Ulster Unionist Party

Date

19 May 2025

Type

Member's statement

Business

Members' Statements

Heading

Antisemitism: Belfast Synagogue and Eurovision Song Contest

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4967864

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I would like to speak about two events from the past few weeks. The first is an attack on the place of worship of our small but much-valued Jewish community. The vandalism at Belfast synagogue is another stark example of the insidious antisemitism that permeates the narrative of far too many political parties and, indeed, many so-called peace activists. All MLAs and political representatives of all parties should join me in utterly condemning attacks on our small Jewish community. At some stage, we may also hear commentary from the parties opposite and beside me condemning the scourge of antisemitism, although, for some ideological reason, that appears to be beyond them. The second event is the attempt by RTÉ, some so-called artists and the usual horde of myopic politicians on this island to ban Israel's entry to the Eurovision song contest. No matter that the Israeli broadcaster, Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation (IPBC) Kan, is heavily criticised by Netanyahu's Government and that the singer, Yuval Raphael, is a survivor of the Nova murder, torture and rape attack by Hamas and other Gaza thugs on 7 October, the antisemitism brigade tried to ban her participation. It is good to see that their racist and sectarian tropes were roundly ignored by the real people of Europe, as they gave Yuval's entry, 'New Day Will Rise', which is a song about peace and hope, the largest people's score, bringing the Israeli entry into second place. It was also noteworthy, although, unsurprisingly, this was not mentioned by any of the media on these islands, that our nation gave Israel its highest score and that Ireland gave it its second highest score. The real people of Europe have spoken. It is about time that the antisemites did the same.

292 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Qualifying Religion and belief (including people of no religion), churches, faith communities and religious prejudice (including antisemitism and anti-Muslim prejudice)

Second assessment

Jev’s answers did not settle this record, so a second model, claude-opus-5-5, read the same text (without the MLA’s name or party) and gave its reasons on 21 October 2026. How the second assessment works

Verdict

Qualifying

Public interest or divisiveness

Mixed

Against the published rubric

The statement opens with a legitimate condemnation of vandalism at Belfast synagogue, which on its own would not meet the rubric. It then turns this into an identity-based attack on political opponents as groups, saying antisemitism "permeates the narrative of far too many political parties" and that condemning it is "beyond" the "parties opposite and beside me" for "some ideological reason". It also labels critics of Israel's Eurovision entry "the antisemitism brigade", "so-called artists" and a "horde of myopic politicians", and sets "the real people of Europe" against them. The rubric treats accusing parties as groups of bigotry, and populist 'real people' framing, as culture-war activity, and here that framing carries most of the statement.

Public interest or divisiveness

Condemning an attack on a place of worship and standing with a small minority community serves the public interest. However, much of the text uses that attack to score points against opponents. It brands those who opposed Israel's Eurovision participation, and unnamed local parties, as antisemites, and maps the Israel–Gaza conflict onto political divisions on the island, contrasting "our nation" with Ireland. The closing line, "It is about time that the antisemites did the same", shows the evident function is to keep a partisan identity row going rather than to address how to protect the Jewish community.

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 12:36 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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