Israel's Public Broadcasting Corporation Apologizes to Armenians

The Public Television Service of Armenia requested clarification from Israel's Public Broadcaster following comments made by their commentator after the performance of Armenia's representative during the second semifinal of the Eurovision Song Contest. The Armenian Public Television presented an official letter from the director-general of the Israeli Public Broadcaster to the executive director of the Armenian Public Television, in which the Israeli side apologizes for the remarks made by the host.

Attached is the official letter: "Eurovision broadcasts in Israel are traditionally accompanied by humorous and light commentary, during which the commentary duo provides entertaining and interesting observations about the songs, performers, and participating countries. During the second semifinal of Eurovision, the commentators made direct humorous remarks, including about the Armenian song, which is done for almost all performances. One of the jokes made, which was directed solely at the song and not at the country or the Armenian people, inadvertently offended some members of the Armenian community. This was certainly not intentional. On the contrary, on several occasions, members of the Israeli delegation have emphasized the connection with Armenia's song and highlighted the warm relationship between the two delegations. When it became known that the comment was perceived as offensive, the commentator who made the statement publicly apologized on his personal platform. Additionally, a clarification will be presented by the commentators during tonight's live broadcast. KAN – Israel's Public Broadcasting Corporation sincerely apologizes for this humorous comment. We wish success to Pargy and the Armenia team during today’s performance," wrote Golan Yochpaz, Director General of Israel's Public Broadcasting Corporation.

It is worth recalling that after the performance of Armenia's representative Pargy, the Israeli host said, "I can’t believe we gave an entire neighborhood of Jerusalem to these guys."