Protests against Israel's participation in "Eurovision"

2024-05-10 09:08:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

Metal barricades and large concrete blocks have been placed around the Malmo Arena, the Swedish city hosting the European Song Festival - "Eurovision 2024". The local police are supported in this action by their Danish and Norwegian colleagues.

The representative of Israel, Eden Golan, who performed on stage with her song "Hurricane" qualified for the Eurovision final.

While singers compete with each other in the Malmo Arena, more than 10,000 people, including climate activist Greta Thunberg, rallied against Israel's participation in Eurovision.

Flakkadan with the colors of the flag of Palestine

Although police declared the march through the city to be "peaceful", demonstrators lit flares in the colors of the Palestinian flag during the raucous rally, where participants repeatedly chanted the slogan "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free" as and "Israel, terrorist state," calling for a cease-fire in Gaza.

Protest organizers said they would march again against Israel's participation before Saturday's final.

The festival claims to be apolitical

Earlier, the Israeli government warned its citizens expressing "real concern" that they could be targeted and that Eden Golan could be rejected by the audience during her performance.

The European Public Broadcasting Union (EBU), which organizes the continent-wide pop contest, decided to allow Israel to compete, despite months of opposition to its participation, at the height of the Israel-Hamas war.

However, singer Golan was forced to change the title and lyrics of the song before she was allowed to compete. The song was originally titled "October Rain", referring to the October 7 attack by Hamas on Israel, which sparked the current war.

The EBU claims Eurovision is apolitical, but critics have pointed to Russia's exclusion from the competition during its invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Belarus was also excluded a year ago because of its human rights record. and freedom of the press. In this year's competition, the display of Palestinian flags is also prohibited./ DW