After six months of pressure and calls for a boycott due to the war in Gaza, the artist obtained his ticket for Saturday’s grand final in Malmö, Sweden, where a major protest parade took place this Thursday May 9.
It’s finally with Eden Golan and her song Hurricane that the final of the 68th Eurovision contest will take place this Saturday evening in Malmö in Sweden, undoubtedly the most controversial edition in the history of the institution. At the end of the second semi-final, Eden Golan therefore obtained his ticket for the next stage alongside Latvia, Austria, the Netherlands, Norway, Greece, Estonia , Switzerland, Georgia and Armenia.
But since December, Israel’s participation in the competition has been contested due to the ongoing war in Gaza. Some voices called for expulsion from the country, invoking the precedent of Russia, banned in 2022 after the invasion of Ukraine; others called on the candidates to withdraw if the Jewish state remained in the running.
Demonstrations and petitions
Earlier in the day, between 10,000 and 12,000 demonstrators according to the police marched through Sweden’s third city, peacefully, to protest against the presence of the Israeli delegation at the competition. Some 40,000 members of the police were mobilized, some from Norway and Denmark, to prevent any overflow.
It all started with the announcement of the song chosen by Kan, Israeli public television. October Rain (“October Rain”) seemed from its title to refer to the Hamas terrorist attack on October 7. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the public media network which organizes the competition, recalled the regulations which prohibit any political allusion and asked the operator to modify the song. Featuring new lyrics, the song is now titled Hurricane.
Before and after this change, petitions signed in particular by former candidates requested the exclusion of the Jewish state. On January 29, the Swedish daily Aftonbladet published a call for more than 1,000 artists. “Welcoming countries that place themselves above humanitarian law and allowing them to participate in international cultural events trivializes violations of international law and makes the suffering of victims invisible,” underlined the text, signed by celebrities such as Eric Saade, the very popular Eurovision candidate in 2011, or the singer Robyn. Other calls have been launched in Ireland, Finland and Iceland.
Keffiyeh on the wrist
Eric Saade, of Palestinian origin, participated as a guest in the first semi-final on Tuesday, wearing a keffiyeh on his wrist, the black and white scarf long used as a sign of support for Palestine. The artist representing Ireland, Bambie Thug, who qualified for the final the same evening, announced that he had to modify, at the request of the EBU, messages calling for a “ceasefire” and to the “freedom for Palestine” written on his body in Ogham, an ancient Celtic alphabet.
We can expect, during the grand finale, and especially when the candidates await the results of the votes in the “green room”, to other events of this type. In 2019, during the competition organized in Tel Aviv, the Icelandic group Hatari waved a banner in the colors of the Palestinian flag in front of the cameras. Their action earned Icelandic public television a fine of 5,000 euros.
The calls for a boycott also concern one of the main sponsors of Eurovision, the Israeli cosmetics brand Moroccanoil, a partner of the competition since 2020. The company, specializing in products based on argan oil, has been accused for several years to hide its origin behind a name that evokes Morocco.
