Artists and musicians in Sweden, Iceland and Finland had petitioned the European Broadcasting Union to exclude Israel over its atrocities in Gaza
Israel can compete in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, organisers confirmed on Thursday, again rejecting calls for it to be excluded over the Gaza war like Russia was after invading Ukraine.
On Wednesday, a group of 400 celebrities including British actress Helen Mirren, British singer Boy George and former Kiss frontman Gene Simmons published an open letter supporting Eurovision’s decision to maintain Israel’s participation.
The letter was issued in response to petitions calling for Israel to be kicked out of the world’s biggest live music event, which is being held in Malmo, Sweden, in May.
Approached by AFP, the European Broadcasting Union said it had conducted a review and decided late last year that Israel could participate in the kitsch annual pop extravaganza.
“The Eurovision Song Contest is a non-political music event and a competition between public service broadcasters who are members of the EBU. It is not a contest between governments,” EBU director general Noel Curran said, reiterating a statement made in January.
read more: https://www.newarab.com/news/eurovision-confirms-israel-can-compete
If countries disagree they should boycott. At minimum bring some Palestinian flags
In 2019 when Eurovision was in Israel, Icelandic band Hatari was fined and harassed for displaying the Palestinian flags.
It’ll apparently be in Malmö this year, so it’ll probably be the other way around now.
Idk, considering EBU clearly shown their preference as in the OP.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
displaying the Palestinian flags
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
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