Kick off tonight for the 68th Eurovision Song Contest, the most politicized in recent years due to the two ongoing wars between Israel – Palestine and Russia – Ukraine.
The First Semi-Final of Eurovision 2024 started shortly after 21:00 CET, with three former Eurovision stars – Eleni Foureira, Chanel and Eric Saade singing a medley of “Fuego”, “Slo-Mo” and “Popular”.
The Swedish singer, of Palestinian origin, appeared on stage wearing a keffiyeh, a statement in favor of Palestine. Apart from being a fashion statement, the keffiyeh has become a political symbol, identified with the Palestinian resistance movement, since the time of Yasser Arafat.
The reaction from Israel’s national broadcaster was immediate so EBU published an official announcement:
The Eurovision Song Contest is a live show.
All participants are aware of the contest rules and we apologize that Eric Saade chose to compromise the non-political nature of the event.
ΕΒU
Going one step further, EBU decided not to publish the excerpt of the Swedish-Palestinian Eric Saade on the official social media of the Eurovision Song Contest.
We’re monitoring the issue and will inform you about all the updates!
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As Russia is banned from the song contest, Postal should also be banned. Even the ICJ said in their interim finding in January that Israel appears “prima facie” to be committing genocide. A lot more innocent civilians have died since then and Israel is now entering Gaza (against the ICJ, the UN and their allies warnings) to start a ground offensive in Rafah, where over 1.5million civilians were ordered by Israel to flee for safety. This is just like the Holocaust all over again, except the victims are now the oppressors. Even my Jewish Israeli friends have said this. Eurovision should have banned Israel from the competition, and maybe would have, except the main sponsor is Moroccan Oil, an Israeli company.
Though Palestinian descent is correct it does imply a full Palestinian family while Erik Saade was raised by a Swedish mother and a Palestine father.
Inhuman prohibitions. Israel is not even European, and it is committing genocide. This is not a political statement, it is a fact. Shame on the EBU to allow them to participate at all.