Bambie Thug latest: 'I'm sure Palestine would welcome this non-binary queer witch with open arms' says NI Friends of Israel spokesman ahead of Eurovision 2024 final

Steven Jaffe, the co-chairman of Northern Ireland Friends of Israel, made the comments on the eve of the Eurovision 2024 final, in which Bambie Thug is Ireland’s competitor.

This week several bookies placed her in the top five list of contenders for this year’s crown, with odds going as low as 15/2 at one point (far, far ahead of the UK’s own entry).

As the News Letter has previously reported, Bambie Thug (31) is a transgender advocate who claims to be neither female nor male, but “non-binary”.

Earlier in the contest she had called for Israel not to be allowed to compete due to its assault on Gaza (which, according to an article in Time magazine by US professor of epidemiology Les Roberts, had “conservatively” left over 30,000 people dead by mid-March).

She has resisted calls from her fans to boycott the contest outright, but during the semi-finals she was caught trying to smuggle a coded ‘Free Palestine’ message into her stage act in violation of Eurovision rules on political campaigning.

Her act involves her dressed in demonic garb alongside a similarly-infernal man while they dance inside a pentagram, a symbol closely associated with Satanism (and which she has tattooed on her hand).

In an address to media this week, the singer screamed out that she is “special” because “I’m a queer, and a witch!” causing the man to stick his tongue out and nod enthusiastically.

She has described Lucifer as her “main squeeze” and once mocked the concept of motherhood on Twitter, saying it was “boring” and she was thankful to have had an abortion so that “my baby is music, not flesh”.

Mr Jaffe told the News Letter: “Given all the support that many artists are showing for ‘Free Palestine’ at Eurovision this year, I wonder why they don't decamp and hold the contest in Ramallah, Nablus or Hebron instead.

"I am sure the Palestinian Authority would welcome with open arms a non-binary, trans affirmative, queer witch.

“According to the organisation Freedom House, which monitors freedom across the world, last year the Palestinian Authority and Hamas-governed Gaza ranked among the least-free places on earth.

"Palestine would never be free for someone like Bambie Thug.

"But then again a Palestinian state would not be free for Christians either, nor for any Muslim who opposes Hamas's form of radical Islam.

"The only Jews Hamas permit in Gaza are the hostages being held in tunnels and threatened with murder.”

He condemned pro-Palestinian “posturing” by artists ahead of the contest, adding: “I hope people will vote for Israel this year. Not only is it that the decent response to the bullying and harassment faced by the Israeli singer, Eden… but also the Israeli entry is by far the best in the competition.

"But some people might say I'm biased!”

Meanwhile Armin Navabi (@ArminNavabi), who describes himself as an “ex-Muslim Iranian-Canadian secular activist”, said: “I hope she wants to free Palestine from Hamas in support of all the LGBT lives taken by Hamas and their supporters.

"I also hope she stands in solidarity with Israel, the only country in the Middle East that provides its LGBT community with dignity and access to a normal and peaceful life.

"Additionally, I hope she supports Israel as the only country in the region that offers refuge to LGBT people escaping persecution in their Islamic societies.

"I truly hope she is not a hypocrite and does not abandon her fellow LGBT individuals.”