Most of but not all of the organisations are defenders of the rights of LGBTQIA - lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, assexual – people.

Among the signatories of the open letter are Portugal’s civil rights group Academia Cidadã, the sexual rights defence group Não te prives, the anti-LGBT-phobia organisations Panteras Rosa and PATH and the Coimbra section of UMAR, a women’s rights group.

“As with the fight against apartheid in South Africa, it is only through effective and sustained international pressure that Israel will be compelled to fulfil its obligations under international law and respect the human rights of the Palestinians,” the letter argues.

In November various Portuguese artists appealed, in a letter sent to public broadcaster RTP, which is responsible for choosing Portugal’s representative for Eurovision, to boycott the finals in Israel.

"We join the growing appeals from around the world and ask members of the LGBTQIA community boycott the Eurovision Song Contest 2019, as long as Israel is the host," reads the latest letter, which was signed by organisations from countries including Germany, France, the US, Belgium and Honduras.

This year, the Eurovision Song Contest is to take place in Tel Aviv, Israel, after the country won last year’s competition, which took place last May in Lisbon, with the song ‘Toy’, performed by Netta Barziliali. The semifinals of the contest are scheduled for 14 and 16 May and the final for 18 May.

In June last year, several Palestinian cultural organisations called for a boycott of the competition, stressing that "the Israeli regime of military occupation, colonialism and apartheid is blatantly using Eurovision as part of its official strategy 'Brand Israel', which tries to show 'the most beautiful face of Israel' to whiten and divert attention from its war crimes against the Palestinians."

In September, more than a hundred artists from all over the world, including Portugal, expressed their support for that appeal.

The latest appeal by more than 60 organisations now comes from nearly 20 countries.

In addition to calling on the elements of the LGBTQIA community to boycott the competition, the associations urge that "base movements, LGBTQIA companies, artists and NGOs of the participating countries protest against the holding of Eurovision In Israel and perform peaceful boycott actions. "

Also on Wednesday, the BBC announced that it had received an open letter in which several leading creative figures, including fashion designer Vivienne Westwood, musician Peter Gabriel, director Mike Leigh and the band Wolf Alice, urge the broadcaster, which is responsible for choosing the UK’s representative, to ask organisers to change the location of the 2019 edition.