Israel’s public broadcaster deletes, apologizes for meme about Croatian Eurovision band’s tattoos

Israel’s Kan public broadcaster issues an apology to Croatia’s Eurovision act for a post that poked fun at the singers’ facial tattoos.

In a satirical Hebrew post on X last night, Kan posted an image of the Lelek singing group and wrote: “When you overdo the henna tattoos in Eilat,” referring to the performers’ facial art.

In response, Lelek wrote on Instagram that they were “disturbed by the comments made by the Israeli broadcaster KAN, in which our culture and the sacrifices made by oppressed Catholic women were mocked.”

The group added, “It is especially disturbing to ridicule women singing about female pain and suffering while showing such a complete lack of empathy and respect for the suffering of others.”

Kan has deleted the post, and Lelek appears to have since deleted the Instagram story.

In a statement to reporters, Kan says it “immediately removed the post. There was no intention to insult the Croatian delegation or the Croatian public. We apologize for the post, and will apologize also to the head of the Croatian delegation.”

The Kan X account posted a variety of light-hearted memes and posts poking fun at multiple artists during last night’s semifinal in the song contest. Both Israel’s Noam Bettan and Croatia’s Lelek advanced to Saturday’s grand final.