The Eurovision Israel hypocrisy that nobody is talking about.

Right, so whilst Israeli settlers were busy destroying olive groves in the occupied Palestinian Territory of the West Bank, well away from Gaza, demonstrating what the genocidal apartheid regime is really all about, the final of the Eurovision Song Contest was going on and of course it has been an absolute embarrassment of how badly the organisers of the song contest, the European Broadcasting Union, the EBU have fallen over themselves to accommodate Israel, to basically do for them, what they did for Ukraine previously, ignoring the genocide they are meting out in Gaza doing exactly what the Israel Lobby would want them to do, basically flashing up Israel’s self declared victimhood up in neon lights.
And you might be thinking Damo, why are you covering what is ostensibly supposed to be a night of ridiculous entertainment, an escape from all things political, then I’m afraid to say despite how you might consider the contest and how you might believe it to not be political and certainly they do claim that themselves, but it never has been. Voting so often goes along the lines of political alliances, but if you thought just the fact that Israel have been admitted and ardently defended by the program makers was the big story, was the main political point being made, if still being denied, that the singer Israel had put up was being booed and that garnered more sympathy, certainly amongst Zionists I daresay, then there’s another point, that I haven’t seen widely talked about, which is definitely worth raising, because it blows every single claim by Eurovision to be outside of politics, clean out of the water.
Right, so last night was the final of Eurovision and normally I’m not above indulging in the mad cheesefest that it is, it can be a bit of fun, it can be a bit of escapism, but it isn’t apolitical and it never has been and this years, which I of course boycotted like so many others did on the grounds the Israeli state had been allowed to perform thanks to the EBU, the European Broadcasting Union, despite the genocide they are meting out in Gaza, was hypocrisy writ large, because of course, when the show was all about Ukraine previously, those attacking Ukraine, Russia and their antidemocratic dictatorship neighbours Belarus were banned from taking part in the song contest in solidarity with Ukraine. Now, you can be for or against or take a somewhat neutral stance on this however you like as the EBU claim they are, I’ve certainly covered the conflict in my own content previously and I’ve always taken the view that the Russia Ukraine conflict is a somewhat grey area, there’s no good vs evil really, because on one hand you have Russia invading another country, which can never be supported, war is never the answer, yet there’s also no denying he was provoked to an extent by NATO expansionism eastwards, something that was promised to Russia back in the day wouldn’t happen, if they assented to the Berlin Wall coming down. It still happened, NATO poked the bear if you like.
Israel and Gaza is a totally different situation though, there is no grey area, it is actually very black and white. Since 1967 Palestine has been occupied territory, Israel control the entry and exit of stuff into those territories, especially Gaza, which they have now completely cut aid off to and are verging on committing an historical moment of death and destruction should they as they keep threatening go all in on Rafah, where 1.6m people are trapped, and starving to death, with nowhere to go and no aid getting in. Palestine have opposed their occupation, the formation of groups like Hamas was in response to that occupation and whether you agree with their actions or condemn them, and again I’ll say jere just as I said in relation to Russia and Ukraine, violence is never the answer, it never solves anything, wars always end when peace talks are instigated, the problem we have here with the Israel Gaza situation, is that Israel are led by a guy in Benjamin Netanyahu, leading a coalition of the worst hard right elements in Israeli political discourse, who as a consequence of that, cannot afford to let the war end. You can’t reason with this Israeli government, they are an absolute global pariah right now and more and more people, sensible people, people capable of rational thought acknowledge the truth of this and are condemning their leaders who continue to support this genocide, continue to enable it as well and so Eurovision has rightfully, justifiably come in for fallout from that too. This isn’t Russia and Ukraine, this is different. Making out that it is the same thing, is gut-wrenching, vomit inducing stuff given the images we’ve seen more than enough of coming out of Gaza, but which will still come and frankly needs to, so our anger doesn’t cool, we can’t afford to let it.
There have, during the course of the song contest been several incidents, of censure against other nations contestants and other people involved choosing to walk away given the EBU’s unapologetic continued support for Israel. The incident with the Dutch contestant Joost Klein for example is probably the best known, who got barred from taking part in the final because of an incident where he apparently told a female staff member he didn’t wish to be filmed. No physical altercation, just words. This was a camera woman as several mainstream media sources have reported, though footage has emerged of the Israeli contestant’s songwriter, Keren Peles, having filmed Klein without his permission by making sure he was caught in the background whilst she and one of their dancers, basically had a giggle about it.
Was this the incident Klein kicked off over? That I can’t confirm, but lots are jumping to that conclusion. Clearly Peles knew she was doing something she shouldn’t be, but since when do Israel ever get set boundaries it seems?
The Israeli contestant’s designer Itai Bezalali also allegedly targeted other contestants critical of Israel such as Greece’s Marina Satti who he tried to take a photo of backstage, and also targeted Ireland’s Bambie Thug in the same manner as Peles filmed Joost Klein, allegedly choosing to misgender them and called them a monster. These were rule breaches, the EBU apparently acknowledged them as such, but no action was taken. Israel get a free pass again.
Now it’s been an often asked question as to why Israel even compete in the song contest, given they aren’t in Europe, a criterion that has continued to be watered down frankly, but when you consider most Israeli’s are white, despite being surrounded by people of racial descent who are not, who they oppress, white people of European descent no less, take Benjamin Netanyahu himself is an example of that, his father Benzion Netanyahu was actually born Benzion Mileikowsky and he was Polish. Israel is a land of settlers after all and remains so to this day. His father incidentally was a rabbi in the Zionist Movement and was Russian which offers me a bit of a segue at this point back to Israel’s actual contestant in Eurovision, Eden Golan. It seems that despite Russia being banned from competing in Eurovision, if you happen to be a dual national Russian and are competing for Israel, well that’s just fine.
Eden Golan was born in Kfar Saba in Israel to Russian parents, settlers. Ironically her mother is of Ukrainian Jewish descent and her father Latvian Jewish. From the time Eden Golan was 6 until she was 18, she lived in Russia and is listed on her Wikipedia page, there’s not a lot to go on on this girl, as Russian-Israeli. Now perhaps being a dual national is a grey are again for the EBU, maybe it offered them a get out of jail free card given Russia is boycotted, but to the eyes of the world, given she was representing one pariah state and is dual national of another widely regarded in the same light, this is Eurovision being anything but apolitical and where one contestant having strong words with someone saw them get banned, the Israeli candidate was able to come out at the end of the show, having been booed throughout proceedings because of who she represented, waving the Israeli flag and coming on to the song I love it, (I don’t care) by Swedish group Icona Pop, just to rub people’s noses in it frankly. How come she was allowed to do that then?
Unlike the Ukrainian contestant however, Israel did not walk away with the win last night, though coming 5th, was far higher than many will have liked. The winner was Swiss contestant Nemo, a country infamously neutral, there’s probably some irony there, though Nemo was apparently the target of Israeli misdemeanour as well backstage.
Israel did really well, got large vote shares from a lot of countries, 10 points from the UK disappointingly, but I like to think that was because so many boycotted it and only the Zionist lobby were watching. Certainly Labour Friends of Israel were jumping up and down and advocating people to vote for the Israeli contestant again making a mockery of the contest having nothing to do with politics. Who does fund them again?
Fundamentally what this shows is we cannot back down, we cannot stop speaking out, because given literally any opportunity, even a song contest, there will be those who will use it to promote Israel and diminish what they are doing in Gaza and the rest of the Palestinian Occupied Territories.
Indeed hostage releases on both sides, and a ceasefire could be enacted now, if a deal Hamas agreed to had also been agreed to by Benjamin Netanyahu, but it hasn’t been and it won’t be, as I said before he cannot afford to let the atrocity end because his grip on power depends on it and peace in the region effectively depends on his removal at this point, I can see no other way as I detail here in this video recommendation and I’ll hopefully catch you on the next vid. Cheers folks.