Don’t put the gas on us. Eurovision bans Palestinian flags

Visitors to this year’s Eurovision Song Contest in Malmö, Sweden, which starts on Tuesday, will not be allowed to bring Palestinian flags or wave banners with slogans about the war between Israel and Hamas, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which organizes the contest, said.

Fans of Eurovision and individual artists will thus be able to bring and display only flags representing the 37 participating countries, the spokesman for the competition specified in a statement to the American newspaper The New York Times. There is one exception to this rule, namely rainbows and other flags representing the LGBTQ community.

Eurovision has long been characterized as an apolitical competition. A spokesman said that although flag policy is reviewed annually, it had not changed since the last edition, which was held in Liverpool, England.

Still, the rule angered some fans. In particular, they were outraged by the part of them that for several months has been calling on the organizers to ban Israel from participating in the competition due to the operations that the Jewish state is conducting in Gaza.

Inga Straumland, an Icelandic fan, called the decision to ban Palestinian flags appalling in an interview with the NYT. She said the move was “a strong restriction on freedom of expression, especially given that the flags of Israel will be present”.

However, the participation of fans from the Jewish state is not entirely certain. Two weeks ago, Israel issued an updated travel warning in connection with the Eurovision Song Contest, putting Malmö, Sweden, at level three, indicating a slight threat.

In its warning, the National Security Council cited a “reasonable fear” that terrorists would target Israelis participating in the Eurovision Song Contest. “Malmö is known as a center of anti-Israel protests,” the Times of Israel quoted as warning, explaining that many immigrants from the Arab world live in the city.

After all, the AP agency wrote that large pro-Palestinian protests are expected in Malmö next week in connection with Eurovision.

Pro-Palestinian demonstrations have been gaining momentum around the world in recent weeks and are influencing even top American policy. While Palestinian flags are increasingly visible on American college campuses and European cities, and will be flying in Malmö itself, they will not be at all at what is arguably the world’s most famous music competition.

On the News List, we wrote about pro-Palestinian demonstrations here, for example:

Critics of the competition often argue about its apolitical nature. For example, the victory of Ukraine two years ago – just a few weeks after the beginning of the Russian invasion – was very symbolic, and the song Stefania by the Kalush Orchestra became a certain anthem of the defenders’ resistance against the aggressor.

Just a day after his victory, the winning artist released a new music video for the song on his YouTube channel, which shows footage of suffering on the Ukrainian front.

Conversation

We try to combine what no one has combined before us, members of the Ukrainian group Kalush Orchestra say about their music in an exclusive interview for Seznam Zpravy. Today, they help their country with charity concerts all over the world.

And Ukraine strongly tackles Eurovision this year as well.

The Kyiv Post wrote on Saturday that Ukraine wants to be seen at the competition and fears that it will be overshadowed by the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. “It’s an opportunity for us to represent our culture. To show that we have something to give to people,” the website quoted singer Jerry Heil, who represents the Eastern European country in the artistic duo with the song Teresa & Maria. “We just have to make ourselves visible,” she added.

The truth remains that the topic of Israel’s participation in the media space has surpassed the mere competition of artists representing their countries.

Supporters of Palestine are calling for the Jewish state to be excluded from the competition. They compare the situation to the fact that Russia and Belarus were eliminated from the competition after the start of the invasion of Ukraine.

“The Russian situation is completely different,” argued EBU Deputy Director General Jean Philip de Tender in an interview with Sky News. “Russian TV stations have been stopped from participating in the entire EBU, as they violated the membership principles. This is not the case with Israel. Eurovision is not a competition of nations or governments, but of TV broadcasters,” he added, adding that Russian stations supported the invasion of Ukraine.

Still, Israel had to change the song choice. Originally, the singer Eden Golan was supposed to represent the Jewish state with the song Otober Rain (October Rain), but in her text she referred to the events of October 7 last year. In the end, however, according to the BBC, Israel requested a name and text change and was “saved” from participating.

Seeded song Hurricane is doing well in the intermediate odds and is expected to advance to the finals. We’ll find out how he does on Thursday, May 9 in the second semi-final and possibly in the final on May 11.