I don’t care in the slightest about Eurovision, but in light of the “controversy” I’m astonished that the Eurovision people permitted Israel to compete at all.
Around 4,000 musicians, artist and music industry pros from five Nordic countries signed an open letter denouncing the Middle Eastern country’s entry in the 69th Eurovision song contest in Basel.
Those who signed the statement, including some previous Eurovision winners, dubbed Israel’s involvement in the competition as a bid to ‘whitewash and divert attention’ from the Israel’s bombardment on Gaza.
It argued that Israel ‘should not have the opportunity to polish its public image on the Eurovision stage and thus use this to cover up and continue its human rights violations.’
Elsewhere broadcasters in Spain, Ireland and Slovenia have called for a debate on Israel’s involvement. Last week, 70 former Eurovision contestants signed a letter calling on the organisers to ban Israel from the competition.
More than 53,000 people have been killed by Israel’s bombardment of the besieged territory, with all aid blocked from entering Gaza since March.
Israel should never have been permitted to compete in Eurovision in the first place. First and foremost, it’s not in Europe. Second, it makes zero sense for Israel to be permitted to participate when Russia is banned from participating. And third, there was zero chance that the Israeli competitor was going to be received well by the Eurovision audience.