The Eurovision Song Contest final yesterday got under way in Sweden’s Malmo with thousands of protesters expected to culminate a week of tensions surrounding Israel’s participation during the Gaza war.
Israel ranks with Croatia and Switzerland as one of the bookmakers’ favorites to succeed Sweden and win the colorful and kitschy competition watched by more than 100 million people.
Police say up to 20,000 demonstrators are expected to rally against Israel’s participation in Malmo, whose more than 360,000 inhabitants represent 186 nationalities, many from the Middle East.
Photo: AP
Sweden’s third-largest city is also expecting up to 100,000 fans from 90 countries, on the 50th anniversary of iconic pop group ABBA’s Eurovision win with Waterloo.
The European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which oversees the event, confirmed in March the participation of Israel’s contestant Eden Golan, despite calls for her exclusion from thousands of musicians around the world.
More recently, nine of the acts, seven of whom are finalists, have called for a lasting ceasefire in Gaza.
The war started with Hamas’ unprecedented Oct. 7 attack on Israel that resulted in the deaths of more than 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an Agence France-Presse tally of Israeli official figures.
Militants also seized hostages, of whom Israel estimates 128 remain in Gaza, including 36 who the military has said are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 34,943 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.
Golan’s song is an adaptation of an earlier version named October Rain that she modified after organizers deemed it too political, because of its apparent allusions to the Hamas attack.
The EBU, which suspended Russia in the wake of the war in Ukraine, says it does not play politics.
Last year, it banned Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy from speaking in the arena to protect the event’s neutrality.
That neutrality was challenged on Tuesday by Swedish singer Eric Saade, who took part in the opening number of the competition wearing a keffiyeh around his arm.
Two days later, the unions at Belgian broadcaster VRT briefly interrupted transmission of the second semi-final to broadcast a message in support of the Palestinians.
“We condemn the violations of human rights by the state of Israel,” the message said in Dutch, accompanied by the hashtags #CeasefireNow and #StopGenocide.
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