Eurovision confirms Israel can compete

3 years ago by tree to c/worldnews

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/...

DmMacniel 105 points 3 years ago

Fucking disgusting. Allowing Israel to compete is a fricking Political statement that says that's okay to do a bit of Genocide as long as you are Israel..

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520 76 points 3 years ago

Not to mention, they kicked out Russia for the war in Ukraine

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WhatAmLemmy 44 points 3 years ago

"We're not political, unless we choose to be..."

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jeena 66 points 3 years ago

So what we learn is that as long as it's an ally of the west doing the genocide, they are still welcome to have a big party with us.

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WhatAmLemmy 15 points 3 years ago

Well, yeah... the Bush admin lied about WMD's and led dozens of western democracies into Iraq because of it — Bush, and many members of the US gov/intelligence/military complex, should be in prison for war crimes.

Not to mention that they had already stolen the 2000 election via corruption.

Most of history was written by criminals. That's why shit's fucked yo!

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mihies 6 points 3 years ago

Also doing proper genocide is bonus points.

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OccamsTeapot 48 points 3 years ago

If countries disagree they should boycott. At minimum bring some Palestinian flags

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PolandIsAStateOfMind 53 points 3 years ago

In 2019 when Eurovision was in Israel, Icelandic band Hatari was fined and harassed for displaying the Palestinian flags.

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kungen 13 points 3 years ago

It'll apparently be in Malmö this year, so it'll probably be the other way around now.

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PolandIsAStateOfMind 11 points 3 years ago

Idk, considering EBU clearly shown their preference as in the OP.

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PipedLinkBot 1 point 3 years ago

Here is an alternative Piped link(s):

displaying the Palestinian flags

Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.

I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.

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Viking_Hippie 45 points 3 years ago

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.

First of all, fuck those 3 with rusty rail spikes for their genocide denial and active support for the fascist apartheid regime committing it. They're dead to me.

Second of all, does anyone have a list of the other 397 hateful or at the very least wilfully ignorant beasts?

Edit: found it myself in this awful Variety article celebrating the letter

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tree 8 points 3 years ago

This is a list of nobodies lmao, they really couldn't do better than this?

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oktoberpaard 39 points 3 years ago

A non-political event, eh? Interesting: https://www.theguardian.com/....

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Blackmist 31 points 3 years ago

Sounds like they'll all be singing songs about how Israel are cunts.

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Viking_Hippie 11 points 3 years ago

If only!

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LoveSausage 18 points 3 years ago

Awesome organized movement in malmoe. Looking forward to Eurovision being completely shut down

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randon31415 18 points 3 years ago

Forget politics... isn't EURO vision a EURO-pean contest? I thought Israel was in the middle east. Of course, I've never watched it, so maybe India and Australia compete as well.

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Saff 22 points 3 years ago

Australia actually do…

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HerbalGamer 17 points 3 years ago

which is also very stupid

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JudahBenHur 6 points 3 years ago

Austrialia has earned their right to participate. For some insane reason, an absolutely massive amount of people (2.5 million+) get up at 4am to watch the broadcast from 5am.

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HerbalGamer 5 points 3 years ago

I don't see how that in any way qualifies them. If a bunch of americans start watching it live, are we gonna get them out there too?

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snek 19 points 3 years ago

When they say Europe they just mean countries with white western values

Correction: technically it's in the European Broadcasting Union zone. Notice, however, that most of those who compete are from white European countries with matching white Europian culture. There's a reason you don't see Morocco competing except for that one time in the 80s.

Israel tries to be a "European" country and a "Middle Eastern" one all the same. Too bad that what it actually is is a racist apartheid ethnostate.

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BirdyBoogleBop 12 points 3 years ago

It's because they are part of the European Broadcasting Union, which is mainly European countiees but also includes Egypt and Israel.

Associate members are also allowed to join Eurovision on a case by case basis which is where you get Australia going to Eurovision.

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Viking_Hippie 6 points 3 years ago

isn't EURO vision a EURO-pean contest

Close. It's a Euro-peen contest. At least some of the after parties probably are 🤷

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mihies 5 points 3 years ago

Every "euro" sport competition join the chat.

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Daqu 5 points 3 years ago

Australia does compete in the ESC :D

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livus 17 points 3 years ago

Eurovision shaping up to be a shit show then.

Wonder if Israel will send something as bad as that incel song of theirs that has death threats against Mia Khalifa and Dua Lipa.

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m13 11 points 3 years ago

Fuck Eurovision then.

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rimjob_rainer 10 points 3 years ago

Genociders welcome

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sndmn 10 points 3 years ago

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LemonLord 8 points 3 years ago

Eurovision Songcontest => has something to do with Europe? Israel in a country in Europe? If yes what is with songs from Palestine? Syria? Lebanon? They are not in Europe, but Israel should be? I think this contest is racist. From it's roots.

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tree 4 points 3 years ago

The technical reason is that Israel is part of the European Broadcasting Union which runs Eurovision which for example Australia has been a part of for the past decade or so, I'm actually not sure if Palestine or any part of Palestine has ever attempted to join this organization, but it does complicate things when you're being occupied in joining organizations. Lebanon is eligible to enter Eurovision because it belongs to a related org to the EBU, but has never chosen to do so because Israel is in the contest. Israel shouldn't be allowed because it's genocidal and a illegitimate settler colonial state, not because of the location. If Israel had never been created, I imagine most of the MENA states in the Arab States Broadcasting Union would have joined the contest.

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cuibono 7 points 3 years ago

Oh good, I was so worried they might have to suffer sitting out fucking Eurovision. Can you even imagine the damage that might cause them?

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robocall 5 points 3 years ago

Can the United States compete too?

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Viking_Hippie 4 points 3 years ago

If it becomes popular enough to attract a lot of American viewership, then probably 🤷