The organisers of the Eurovision Tune Contest are below growing strain to exclude Israel from this 12 months’s competitors because it wages a warfare on Gaza.
Greater than 20 politicians wrote to the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) on Tuesday saying Israel’s participation within the contest “whitewashes a regime that is carrying out ethnic cleansing in Palestine and committing war crimes and genocide”.
European Parliament members and politicians from Spain’s left-wing Podemos social gathering are among the many signatories of the letter seen by Al Jazeera.
The annual contest is about to happen in Could at Sweden’s Malmo Area after Swedish singer Loreen gained final 12 months.
The politicians behind the letter acknowledged that the EBU, which is a bunch of public media organisations, desires Eurovision to stay a non-political occasion.
“However, the Eurovision Song Contest did veto Russia’s participation in the contest from 2022 in response to its invasion of Ukraine. Also, in 2019, Iceland was fined by the festival organisers because the Icelandic contestant displayed a Palestinian flag at the Eurovision Song Contest in Tel Aviv,” they mentioned.
“Israel’s participation is in clear conflict with what the EBU claims to stand for, as it misinforms about Israel and conceals its genocidal behaviour,” they added.
Thirty-seven nations will take part this 12 months.
Israel grew to become the primary non-European nation to take part in 1973 and hosted the popular culture occasion in Tel Aviv in 2019. Entry to the competition is open to all members of the EBU.
Apart from the European politicians, musicians in Sweden, artists in Finland, and protesters in Norway and Eire have despatched letters to the EBU urging public broadcasters to exclude Israel from the competition.
Iceland, in the meantime, is reconsidering its participation if Israel is allowed to compete this 12 months.
On the time of publishing, the EBU had not responded to Al Jazeera’s request for remark.
Israel accuses everybody of terrorism to proceed massacring the Palestinian folks with whole impunity. We should forestall its participation in any worldwide occasion that enables it to whitewash its barbarism, corresponding to Eurovision. pic.twitter.com/g8A1BiUCSh
— Ione Belarra (@ionebelarra) February 4, 2024
‘Boycott Eurovision’
Eurovision, which started in 1956, is a world music pageant watched and adored by thousands and thousands of viewers.
However this 12 months, some followers mentioned they may be a part of protests towards Israel by boycotting the competition and turning off their screens ought to or not it’s allowed to take part.
“I’m a huge Eurovision fan. It should just be a bit of fun, but we all know behind the glitz and glamour, geopolitical games are at play,” Ciara Greene, a Belgium-based fan informed Al Jazeera. “The day after Russia invaded Ukraine, it was rightly excluded from the song contest. Allowing Israel to participate contributes to Israeli exceptionalism and normalises the state’s genocidal policies.”
In Sweden, house to the 1974 Eurovision winner Abba, well-known musicians like Robyn have additionally signed a letter calling out the competitors’s alleged double commonplace.
“It’s hard to not be political with music,” mentioned Ida, a 33-year outdated scholar within the Swedish capital, Stockholm. “If Israel were to take part, I think most just wouldn’t vote for them and make their displeasure known.”
Israel is reportedly planning to announce its entry on Tuesday.
Brian Donnelly, a human rights activist in Eire, organised a marketing campaign designed to strain RTE, Eire’s consultant broadcaster within the Eurovision Tune Contest, into urging the EBU to disqualify Israel.
“We heard this strategy worked when Russia invaded Ukraine, but in our case, we have not yet got a reply from RTE,” Donnelly informed Al Jazeera. “If Israel takes part, it will help their PR campaign of normalising what they’re doing to the Palestinian people.”
Claire Charles, a advertising and marketing supervisor from France, mentioned Israel’s inclusion was an indication of “Western hypocrisy”.
“All these public institutions are useless. Western governments are useless. Murder and occupation and war and genocide continues to happen,” she informed Al Jazeera.
“Excluding Russia last time reveals the blatant racism of not excluding Israel this year.”