While Ukraine is counting votes for the national selection for Eurovision 2024, Israel is faced with the threat of exclusion from Eurovision.
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European broadcasters are calling for a boycott of Israel’s participation in the annual singing competition due to the Palestinian military operation in Gaza.
In Sweden, which will host the competition in Malmö in May, more than 1,000 musicians, including 2023 winner Robin, have written an open letter to the event’s organizer, the European Language Union (EBU), calling out its “hypocrisy in the face of the humanitarian disaster in Gaza.”
Finnish artists called on Finnish public broadcaster Yle to put pressure on the EBU to prevent the participation of “a country committing war crimes and continuing its military occupation.” The statement said Israel could be given a public stage to “burnish its image in the name of music.”
EBU has reviewed the entry list for the 2024 competition and has agreed that Israeli public broadcaster KAN meets all competition rules for this year, EBU CEO Noel Curran said in a statement.
This is consistent with other international organizations, which have “maintained their inclusive stance towards Israeli competitors in major competitions at this time,” he said.
But public broadcasters who are members of the EBU are not giving up, writes Politico. Swedish host SVT has called on the EBU to decide who can compete in the 2024 competition.
We understand and respect groups expressing their voices, the statement said.
Ireland’s RTÉ received nearly 500 emails calling for it to withdraw from the event if Israel went to Sweden. Palestinian supporters knelt half-naked in the snow in front of the offices of Norwegian broadcaster NRK, demanding Israel’s exclusion.
Iceland’s RÚV said it would defer a decision on whether to enter this year’s competition after the completion of the national selection, in which the Palestinian singer is taking part.
Last month, Israel’s ambassador to Sweden, Ziv Nevo, argued that “to call for a boycott of Israel is to support Hamas and put a price on terrorism.”
Keep politics beyond Eurovision,” he said.
The EBU has always tried to stay away from politics, making it an official rule for participants not to “politicize” or “instrumentalize” the event. The union even fined Icelandic band Hatari for waving a Palestinian flag on camera during the 2019 competition in Tel Aviv.
But such political neutrality has not been so clear since 2022.
Last year’s event in Liverpool – when the United Kingdom put on the show that last year’s winner Ukraine couldn’t – was festooned with blue and yellow flags in solidarity with the country’s fight against Russian invasion.
The Russian expulsion was explained by “consistent violations by Russian broadcasters of their membership obligations and violations of the values of public media.
Idoya Villanueva, a Spanish member of the European Parliament, took on the role of the Israeli broadcaster in a letter to the EBU obtained by POLITICO and sent on behalf of the assembly’s left-wing group.
It should be recalled that last November, public broadcaster KAN published a video of minors singing about Gaza and saying phrases like “Within a year we will destroy them all,” referring to the Palestinian population of Gaza, the letter said.
Source: Racurs
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.