Israel’s participation in Eurovision 2024 contested in Sweden and Ireland

In Sweden, demonstrations are increasing and associations are calling for Israeli singer Eden Golan to be excluded from the competition. In Ireland, artists signed a petition calling on their candidate, Bambie Thug, to boycott the competition.

The war in Gaza has a direct impact on the Eurovision 2024 musical competition taking place in Malmö, Sweden. Israeli singer, Eden Golan, will perform this Thursday, May 9 as part of the semi-finals, under heavy police surveillance. Israel’s participation, despite calls from many Scandinavian artists and associations to exclude it from the competition, is creating tensions.

Ireland hasn’t won Eurovision since 1996 and the island hasn’t made it to the final since 2018. Bambie Thug, from Cork, has just changed that. The non-binary Irish artist, with a gothic and more than zany style, qualified for the final of the competition on Saturday May 11. However, with the presence of Israel, its participation in the competition is criticized in the country. Hundreds of Irish artists have signed a petition calling on him to boycott the competition.

Sweden: 20,000 demonstrators expected in Malmö

Eden Golan, the Israeli singer, has qualified for the semi-final of Eurovision, which will take place this Thursday in Malmö, Sweden. Israel’s participation in the competition creates tensions and since the start of the festivities, Sunday May 5, the city of Malmö has been cordoned off, there are a lot of armed police in the streets. Snipers are stationed on the roofs around the Malmö Arena where the concerts take place, anti-ram barriers have sprung up almost everywhere in the areas where festival-goers concentrate.

Sweden even requested reinforcements from its neighbors, Norway and Denmark, for the occasion. There is, of course, as with any major international event, the fear of a terrorist attack, a fear all the more felt in Sweden since the burning of Korans in 2023 which made the country a target of Islamists, but it There has also been an extremely strong and lasting mobilization of the inhabitants of Malmö against Israel’s participation in Eurovision, since the start of the war in Gaza.

Demonstrations have taken place every weekend since October 7, 2023. Everywhere in the city, we see Palestinian flags on the windows, anti-war frescoes denouncing a genocide of the Palestinians, many people wearing black and white keffiyeh around neck, to show their support for the Palestinian cause. Malmö is a popular, university, left-wing city, which has welcomed thousands of Palestinian refugees and from across the Middle East since the 1960s, and where pan-Arab solidarity is therefore more visible than elsewhere in the country. 20,000 people are expected in the streets this afternoon and this evening for a large demonstration. The Eurovision management defends its position, recalls that the event is “apolitical“, and asked the artists on stage, and the public, not to brandish Palestinian symbols.

The Israeli singer modifies her title “October Rain”

The artist representing Sweden, Eric Saade, who is himself of Palestinian origin, had wrapped a keffiyeh around his wrist during the opening concert and was reprimanded, since they are not allowed on stage and in the public, as the flags of the participating countries. Two days ago, Eurovision management also asked Irish singer Bambie Thug, who is openly pro-Palestinian, to remove inscriptions supporting Gaza from her costume.

The European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which organizes the competition, is walking on eggshells. She demanded that Israeli singer Eden Golan change the title and content of her song originally titled “October Rain” since the references to the Hamas terrorist attack against Israel were too obvious. What is certain is that here, in Malmö, many denounce the hypocrisy of double standards. Russia was banned from the competition following the invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and during the last editions of Eurovision, the festival’s support for Ukrainians was clearly displayed and explicit. So the fact that artists cannot even share a thought for the nearly 35,000 dead in Gaza is bad.

Ireland: 400 artists call on Bambie Thug to withdraw from competition

Ireland decided this year to send “the witch” at Eurovision. This is how the artist is nicknamed by the Irish media, while Bambie Thug qualified for the final of the competition on Saturday evening. The artist is 31 years old and describes herself more as a “queer ouija popstar“. Ouija in reference to this board, supposed to allow communication with spirits. Bambie Thug defies the genre and faces numerous criticisms.

More than 400 Irish artists, opposed to Israel’s participation, called on him to withdraw from the competition. Among them, actress Siobhan McSweeney, known for her role in the series Derry Girls. These artists declare in their letter that“by participating in Eurovision, Bambie Thug stands with the oppressor”. They also write that the Palestinians asked the artists to boycott this competition. So Bambie Thug should choose to be “on the right side of history”.

This letter joins that of more than 16,000 Irish viewers, who have asked the director general of RTE, the largest Irish channel, to withdraw Ireland from Eurovision. The artists’ letter also highlights the importance of these kinds of global events, which they say would be used in a propaganda effort by Israel. This would be a way of “whiten“his genocidal crimes against the Palestinians in Gaza.

Bambie Thug and candidates called for a ceasefire in Gaza

The Irish identify greatly with the Palestinian cause, due to their own past with the British. This is also the case for Bambie Thug, who joined several other Eurovision candidates to call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza in April 2024. “I think they should contact European television or RTE, rather than me, because we are easy targets, as artists. I don’t think it’s entirely fair to intimidate us so much. Above all, while I’m doing everything in my power, outside of this competition There’s obviously pressure, but at the same time, I’m just one person, I can’t make the changes they do. expect from me!”pleads Bambie Thug.

Bambie maintains today that pro-Palestinian representation in the contest is important this year. But the artist also clarified that they had “ordered“to remove all political clothing, before the semi-final. Their costume originally included ancient Celtic writing meaning “ceasefire” And “freedom for Palestine“.