Eurovision 2024 hit by protests over Israel taking part amid Gaza war

Malmö, Sweden — Not everyone was welcoming Eurovision Song Contest to the Swedish city of Malmö. Thousands of pro-Palestine demonstrators demonstrated in the Swedish port city on Thursday against Israel’s participation in the pan-continental pop competition. Protesters waving green, white and red Palestinian flags packed historic Stortorget square near Malmö’s 16th-century town hall ahead of a planned march through the city to a rally in a park several kilometers from the Eurovision site.

Chanting and shouting slogans such as “Israel is a terrorist state”, protesters threw smoke beams in Palestinian colors during a noisy but peaceful demonstration to criticize Israel and call for a ceasefire in their country. war with Hamas.

The first of these slogans chanted by protesters is a highly controversial reference to the creation of a Palestinian state, defined by the Anti-Defamation League as an “anti-Semitic slogan commonly featured in anti-Israel campaigns and chanted at demonstrations”.

Although many protesters reject the slogan as rooted in racism or calls for violence, the ADL asserts that “it is fundamentally a call for a Palestinian State extending from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, territory that includes the State of Israel, which would mean the dismantling of the Jewish state… It is an anti-Semitic charge that denies the right of Jews to self-determination, including through the removal of Jews from their ancestral homeland.”

There was a large police presence at the protest in Malmo on Thursday, with a helicopter flying overhead and officers on rooftops with binoculars.

“It’s important to be here,” said Amani Eli-Ali, a Malmo resident of Palestinian heritage. “It is not right for Sweden to organize this Eurovision and have Israel in the competition.”

Outrage over the Israel-Hamas situation brought a shocking juxtaposition to Eurovision week in Malmo. Music fans in colorful sequined outfits or draped in their national flags mingled in the streets with supporters of the Palestinian cause in traditional keffiyeh scarves.

Palestinian flags fly from windows and balconies along a pedestrian thoroughfare that has been temporarily renamed “Eurovision Street.”

Pro-Palestinian groups plan to march again on Saturday, the day of the Eurovision final.

The Israeli government warned its citizens of a “tangible concern” that Israelis could be targeted in Malmo during the dispute.

Organizers, who say they try to keep Eurovision an apolitical event with this year’s event being unity through music, have rejected calls to bar Israel from waging its war against Hamas.

However, they told Israel to change the lyrics of its entry, which was originally titled “October Rain”, in an apparent reference to Hamas’ cross-border terrorist attack on October 7 that killed some 1,200 Israelis and sparked the war. The song was renamed “Hurricane” and Israeli singer Eden Golan was allowed to remain in the contest.

She would compete in the semifinals on Thursday night. Some audience members attending a dress rehearsal on Wednesday could be heard booing during Golan’s performance.

Critics of the decision to let Israel compete point out that Russia was expelled from Eurovision in 2022 following its large-scale participation. invasion of Ukraineand Belarus was expelled a year earlier due to its government’s crackdown on dissent.

“We should be united by music, but we are not united, because Israel is participating,” said Malmo resident Anders Trolle-Schultz, who took part in the protest.

“I think Malmo should have kept Eurovision, but we should have said to Israel: ‘Stay away’, or maybe even said: why don’t we invite a Palestinian musical group to participate? That would have been fair.”