Eurovision overtaken by the war in Gaza and Israel’s participation in the final

(Malmö) The final of the Eurovision song contest takes place on Saturday in Malmö, Sweden, in a context of tension heightened by the participation of the Israeli candidate, in the middle of the war in Gaza.

In the streets of Malmö, which has the largest community of Palestinian origin in the country, some 2,000 to 3,000 people, according to an initial estimate by the AFP team on site, gathered peacefully to protest against the presence of Israel in the competition.

“We are not against Eurovision, but against Israel’s participation in Eurovision. We don’t want his representative in Malmö […] because of what is happening in Gaza,” summarized Ingemar Gustavsson, a Swedish retiree.

Police reinforcements came from all over the Scandinavian country, but also from Denmark and Norway to ensure the security of the event, for which nearly 100,000 admirers from 90 countries are expected.

On Saturday noon, the organizers also announced the exclusion of Dutch participant Joost Klein after a complaint was filed by a member of the production team. A police investigation is underway.

Dutch broadcaster Avrotros deemed this disqualification “disproportionate”. In a statement, the television said it was “shocked by the decision”.

This incident has nothing to do with the attitude of the Dutch artist towards other delegations, underlined the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which oversees the competition. Joost Klein notably expressed his disagreement with being placed next to Israeli representative Eden Golan during a press conference by conspicuously covering his face with the Dutch flag on several occasions.

Israeli singer Eden Golan, 20, won her ticket to the final on Thursday evening with the song “Hurricane”, the initial version of which had to be modified because it was considered to allude to the Hamas attack which bloodied Israel on October 7.

She was second among the favorites behind Croatia on Saturday.

With the exclusion of Joost Klein, a first in the history of the competition, twenty-five countries, and not twenty-six, will compete to succeed Sweden as winner of this competition which was followed in 2023 by 162 million viewers.

“I’m really very sad,” reacted Marina, a Dutch woman from Rotterdam who did not give her name. “Her song is a party song, it brings lightness to a Eurovision with a fairly heavy atmosphere,” she said.

Calls for boycott

The EBU confirmed Eden Golan’s participation in March despite criticism. Nine of the participants, seven of whom are in the final, called for a lasting ceasefire in Gaza, where Israel is increasing its strikes.

Israel has participated in Eurovision since 1973, winning it for the fourth time in 2018. “It’s truly an honor to be here […] to present ourselves with pride,” rejoiced Thursday the Israeli candidate who

Before the semi-final, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu judged that Eden Golan had “already won”, hailing her in a video message for having “successfully confronted a horrible wave of anti-Semitism”.

On Friday, the Spanish far-left Sumar party – whose leader Yolanda Diaz is number three in the government – ​​launched a petition to demand the exclusion of Israel from the final “at a time when its troops are exterminating the Palestinian people and destroying all the region “.

Berlin responded by judging that “calls for a boycott against the participation of Israeli artists” were “totally unacceptable”, with Paris emphasizing for its part that “politics has no place at Eurovision”.

Neutrality

But the neutrality claimed by the EBU is being shaken up like never before.

On Tuesday, Swedish singer Eric Saade appeared with his arm girded by a Palestinian keffiyeh during the opening number.

Unions at Flemish public television channel VRT briefly interrupted broadcasts on Thursday evening to broadcast a message condemning “human rights violations by the State of Israel.”

A gesture regretted by the EBU, which had banned Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky from speaking during the competition last year, in the name of political neutrality.

This year, the conflict in Ukraine has been overshadowed by the war in Gaza, triggered by the attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement, which left more than 1,170 dead, according to an AFP report based on official Israeli data.

In response, the Israeli army launched an offensive in Gaza, which has killed 34,943 people so far, according to the Hamas health ministry.

On Thursday, nearly 12,000 people, including climate activist Greta Thunberg, had already demonstrated in Malmö against Israel’s participation.

“No threat”

In the enclosure, any flag other than those of the participants are prohibited, as are any banners with a political message.

The Swedish police assured that there was “no threat against Eurovision”. Last summer, Sweden raised its terrorist alert level after acts of desecration of the Koran.

As for the festivities, the 2024 edition offers a wide range of musical genres, from ballads to electro. Malmö, Sweden’s third city, hopes to offer admirers the time of (their) life (the moment of their lives), as sang by Abba, who gave the country the Eurovision crown exactly half a century ago.

This year, many songs “deal with mental health – many young artists say they do not feel well and struggle with their identity” as is the case of Nemo (Switzerland), notes Andreas Önnefors, specialist in the competition.

Eden Golan assured that her song Hurricane was “about a young girl going through her own problems, her own emotions.”