(Jerusalem) Israel threatens to withdraw from this year’s Eurovision contest if organizers refuse its song lyrics October Rainwhich evokes the bloody Hamas attack, considering them too political.
This warning comes as the organizers of the competition have confirmed in recent days the participation of Israel despite calls to ban it launched by several countries to protest against the war in Gaza.
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Eden Golan and her song October Rain (October rain) were chosen by Israel to participate in the annual competition which will take place in May in Malmö, Sweden.
His words do not explicitly mention the October 7 attack, but leave no doubt that they are the subject, according to Israeli media and observers.
“Dancing in the storm/We’ve got nothing to hide/Take me home/And leave the world behind/And I promise it’ll never happen again/I’m still wet from this October rain/ October rain,” says a verse of this song, the lyrics of which were published by the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation (KAN).
The question for the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), organizer of the competition, is whether these lyrics can be considered political statements, which Eurovision prohibits.
The EBU said it was “considering the words” and had not yet made its decision.
“If a song is deemed unacceptable for any reason, broadcasters have the opportunity to submit a new song or lyrics, in accordance with the competition rules,” she stressed.
KAN said this week it was “in discussions” with the EBU about Israel’s participation in Eurovision but warned it had “no intention of replacing the song.” . “If it is not approved by the EBU, Israel will not be able to participate in the competition,” she added.
“Moving” or “political”?
The prospect of a ban sparked outrage from Israeli Culture and Sports Minister Miki Zohar, who called it “scandalous.”
The song is “moving” and “expresses the feelings of the people and the country these days, and is not political,” he wrote this week on social media.
“I hope that Eurovision will remain a musical and cultural event and not a political arena,” he added, inviting the EBU to “continue to act with professionalism and neutrality” and “not to let politics affect art.”
Israeli President Isaac Herzog pleaded Sunday for an “intelligent” dialogue between the EBU and the KAN to allow his country’s participation in this competition seen by “hundreds of millions of people”, cited by local media during of a conference in Jerusalem.
Several countries have called for Israel to be banned from Eurovision to protest against the heavy toll of the war in Gaza, launched on October 7 after the Hamas attack on Israeli soil which resulted in the deaths of at least 1,160 people, according to an AFP count made from official Israeli data.
PHOTO FREDRIK PERSSON, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE ARCHIVES
Swedish protesters demand Israel’s withdrawal from Eurovision 2024.
Israeli military operations in retaliation in the Palestinian territory, where Hamas took power in 2007, have killed more than 29,600 people.
The Eurovision contest, which is very popular in Israel, has allowed several of its artists to become known internationally, a source of pride in the country.
Israel was the first non-European country to be allowed to participate in 1973, and has won four times, including with transgender singer Dana International in 1998.
But the country has not been spared from controversies. The last time Israel hosted the competition, in May 2019, the Icelandic group Hatari, which challenged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by offering him a Nordic folk wrestling match, notably brandished a Palestinian flag during the counting votes in Tel Aviv.
The organizers also criticized Madonna, a guest that year, believing that her dancers had flouted the rules of political neutrality by wearing Israeli and Palestinian flags on their costumes.
In 2009, Georgia gave up participating in Eurovision in Moscow after the rejection of its song We don’t want to put in by the organizers on the grounds that it mocked the Russian Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin. Russia was also excluded from the competition in 2022 due to its war against Ukraine.