Eurovision Song Contest 2024: Calls to exclude Israel grow

After artists from Iceland and Finland opposed Israel's participation in the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) in mid-January, voices from this year's host country have also spoken out.

More than 1,000 Swedish artists have signed an open letter against Israel's participation in the music competition, including famed international acts like Fever Ray and Robyn, and contest veterans such as opera star Malena Ernman — who performed in the song competition in 2009 and is the mother of climate activist Greta Thunberg.  

The letter alleged that the Israeli army had committed "gross war crimes," noting that more than 25,000 Palestinians, including more than 10,000 children, were killed in the first 100 days of Israel's war against the militant Islamist Palestinian group Hamas.

"What is happening in Gaza is a humanitarian disaster," the letter continued before calling out the European Broadcasting Union's (EBU) intention to allow Israel to participate in the 2024 Eurovision song contest.

Their protest is directed at the the EBU as organizers of the European Song Contest, especially their claim that the competition is apolitical.

In 2022, the EBU excluded Russia from the competition after the invasion of Ukraine, the letter pointed out. Belarus was exluded a year earlier, it added, because of its handling of human rights and freedom of the press.

Sweden won the ESC in 2023, bringing the competition to its country for the seventh time.  Eurovision takes place in Malmo in May.

Is Eurovision really a non-political event? 

Political opinion, including over the Israel-Palestinian conflict, has often been expressed on the fringes of the song competition.

This was particularly evident when Tel Aviv hosted the event in 2019.

The year before, Israeli singer Netta won the song contest in Lisbon with her brilliant plea for diversity and self-confidence, bringing the following year's competition to Tel Aviv, where it was held in May 2019.

Smaller pro-Palestinian demonstrations took place on the sidelines of the event but received little attention given the many thousands of Eurovision fans who just wanted to celebrate in Tel Aviv.

On the evening of the final, Icelandic band Hatari held pro-Palestinian banners into the camera, violating the rules of the event. The Icelandic broadcaster, RUV, had to pay a fine of €5,000 ($5,440) to the EBU, which organizes the international competition.

Performing at the event that same evening, Madonna had a dancer with an Israeli flag and another one wearing a Palestinian flag climb the stairs arm in arm during her act. The US superstar later said that it was a "message of peace and unity." The EBU was less enthusiastic.

Even though the contest's rules specify that any promotion of political messages is prohibited, the regulation has been repeatedly broken in the past.

Last year's event in Liverpool, organized by the UK on behalf of Ukraine, featured blue and yellow flags as a mark of solidarity with the country subjected to Russia's war of aggression since February 2022. Meanwhile, Russia has been denied participation in the contest for the past two years.

Calls to boycott Israel

In mid-January of this year, some 1,400 Finnish musicians has already joined with pro-Palestinian artists and activists  to sign a petition demanding that Israel be excluded from the Eurovision Song Contest.

"It is not in accordance with our values that a country that commits war crimes and continues a military occupation is given a public stage to polish its image in the name of music," stated the petition.

A similar campaign was previously staged in Iceland.

At the same time in Norway, demonstrators from the "Aksjonsgruppa for Palestine" (Action Group for Palestine) gathered in front of the headquarters of the NRK television station in Oslo and demanded that Norway also support the exclusion of Israel, according to local media reports.

In Ireland, a Labor MP publicly called for a boycott of the Eurovision Song Contest were Israel to remain in the competition. As Ireland has been the most successful country in the history of the contest, he thought his call would be followed by the other participants. Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar opposed the boycott, however, declaring that determining Israel's involvement in the Eurovision was a matter for the EBU.

British Eurovision candidate Olly Alexander has signed a pro-Palestinian statement from a queer alliance, calling the events in Gaza an "escalation of Israel's apartheid regime in Israel." The Israeli embassy in London immediately reacted: "Particularly at this time, the decision of the BBC to send an entrant to Eurovision who espouses such partial views of Israel and promotes such dehumanizing language of Israelis is a major cause for concern."

The Israeli ambassador to Sweden also expressed his views: "On October 7, Israel was brutally attacked by a vicious terrorist organization that openly calls for its annihilation. Promoting a boycott of Israel is supporting the acts of Hamas, is giving a prize to terrorism and is incompatible with the values of the (European Broadcasting Union) and of the competition."

Hamas is classified as a terrorist organization by the European Union, Germany, and the United States, among other nations.

Meanwhile, the EBU has been repeating its mantra that Eurovision is apolitical; the broadcasting union has also dismissed accusations that it has double standards, stating that the Russian attack on Ukraine cannot be compared with Israel's actions in Gaza.

How Israel joined Eurovision in the first place

Israel made its Eurovision debut in 1973. At the time, the event was still called the "Grand Prix Eurovision de la Chanson."

Ever since then, Israel has been a member of the European Broadcasting Union, an association of currently 68 broadcasters in 56 countries in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.

Israel is not the only non-European country taking part in the competition. Armenia and Azerbaijan are also participants. Belarus made its debut in 2004, but was suspended in 2021 because the song they wanted to submit made fun of the protests against authoritarian ruler Alexander Lukashenko. 

Australia has been the "most exotic" Eurovision country, participating since 2015. It joined because there was already a huge fan base in the country, and is now an associate member of the EBU.

The association groups many radio stations and countries beyond European borders, which is why the event is called Eurovision Song Contest, and not the European Song Contest.

Israel is one of the most successful participants in the competition, having won the contest four times to date, and coming in second or third four times. It has also never finished last, unlike Germany.

Preliminary auditions in Israel underway

Despite the war in Gaza, preparations for Israel's participation in Malmo are underway. The casting show "HaKokhav HaBa: The Next Star," in which candidates audition for Eurovision, was postponed due to the start of the war, but it is now being staged, albeit irregularly and without a live audience: a production with so many people in a TV studio was deemed too dangerous.

Incidentally, among the show's participating singers was an army lieutenant who died in the Gaza Strip just weeks after his TV appearance.

The question arose in Israeli media and on social networks as to whether such a show was appropriate in times of war. Among the main critics of the casting show are the relatives of the hostages still being detained by Hamas.

The Israeli show is set to continue for the time being, though organizers claim it is less colorful and boisterous than usual. The show's hosts explained that this won't be a normal season; it will be adapted to the situation. "But we're sure a little music can only help."

This article was updated on January 30 to reflect calls by Swedish artists to exclude Israel from the song contest. 

This article was originally written in German.