Recommendations of the Editorial team
More than 70 former participants: Inside the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) have signed an open letter. In it they demand the exclusion of Israel and the public broadcaster KAN from this year’s competition. Writing is directed to the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which organizes the ESC annually.
Serious allegations against organizers
According to “The Independent”, which the letter is present, the signing that last year’s competition has become “the most politicized, chaotic and most unpleasant competition in history” last year’s competition. In the letter, Kan is described as “complicit in the Israeli genocide of the Palestinians in Gaza as well as in the decades of apartheid regime and the military occupation”.
The signatories include the British ESC participant from 2023, Mae Muller, the Irish winner of 1994, Charlie McGetigan, and Portuguese artist Fernando Tordo. The letter continues: “By continuing to promote the representation of the Israeli state, it normalizes and glosses on its crime.”
Ebu defends Israel’s participation in the ESC
The EBU rejected the allegations. ESC director Martin Green told “The Independent”: “We understand concern about the current conflict in the Middle East”, but emphasized EBU’s obligation to offer a platform for diversity and integration. The continued existence of the Israeli station is also supported.
Israel will be represented this year by Yuval Raphael, a survivor of the Nova Music Festival massacre on October 7, 2023. She will perform the song “New Day Will Rise” in Basel. With this song – containing stanzas in English, French and Hebrew – the singer would like to tell “the history of the country, what I went through, what others have done”, as she said “The Times of Israel”.
It is already indicated that the ESC will attract attention again beyond music – even if this is no longer new for the organizers.