They literally censored the booing and people protesting during the Israeli performance. When Spain talked about it, they threatened to ban Spain from broadcasting the competition. They even threatened to pull other broadcasters and publicly scolded other broadcast’s hosts for mentioning “the mood” on the theater was not positive. There are allegations that the ESC manipulated or allowed Israel to manipulate the votes to give Israel a higher vote count than they really achieved. The song itself is actually about surviving the attack by Hamas on October 7 2023 that sparked the current episode of the war.
Thanks for the thorough comment. It made me think and I have to say I agree that Israel and the ESC are promoting genocide albeit not for the reasons you listed here. For me it is convincing that allowing a country who’s government is committing a genocide to participate in a contest that is promoting itself as progressive and perceived as such by most, normalises the country and thus it’s behaviour and thus the genocide which in turn promotes genocidal behaviour.
I don’t think that the reason they were allowed into the contest is to promote genocide though. I think it rather is because the ESC is afraid of being called antisemitic by Israel.
They literally censored the booing and people protesting during the Israeli performance. When Spain talked about it, they threatened to ban Spain from broadcasting the competition. They even threatened to pull other broadcasters and publicly scolded other broadcast’s hosts for mentioning “the mood” on the theater was not positive. There are allegations that the ESC manipulated or allowed Israel to manipulate the votes to give Israel a higher vote count than they really achieved. The song itself is actually about surviving the attack by Hamas on October 7 2023 that sparked the current episode of the war.
https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/eurovision/eurovision-controversy-voting-israel-public-scores-b2755034.html
Thanks for the thorough comment. It made me think and I have to say I agree that Israel and the ESC are promoting genocide albeit not for the reasons you listed here. For me it is convincing that allowing a country who’s government is committing a genocide to participate in a contest that is promoting itself as progressive and perceived as such by most, normalises the country and thus it’s behaviour and thus the genocide which in turn promotes genocidal behaviour. I don’t think that the reason they were allowed into the contest is to promote genocide though. I think it rather is because the ESC is afraid of being called antisemitic by Israel.