(TEL AVIV): Eden Golan has already arrived in Malmö, but she does not want to see much of the city. Due to death threats, her bodyguards have decided that she will mostly stay in her hotel room. Never before has Israel sent such a large security bid to Eurovision as in 2024.
From the beginning, the city of Malmö had a bad reputation among many Israelis. The actor Kim Bodnia, who played a Danish detective in the Swedish-Danish series Broen, told Israeli radio in 2016 that he, as a Danish Jew, felt unsafe in Malmö, and that he withdrew from the series because of the anti-Semitism in the Swedish city.
And in recent weeks, Israeli journalists have visited Malmö, including neighborhoods such as Rosengård. They told the Israelis at home about Palestinian flags that could be seen “everywhere” in some neighborhoods, about how they were pushed and threatened by people who heard them speak Hebrew. And not least, how some even told them about “plans” to attack the Israeli Eurovision delegation.
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Jumpy
After she arrived in Malmö, Golan admitted, in a post on Instagram, that she was “a little nervous”. She did not say anything if she feared that something might happen during her performance on stage. But Golan still said she was proud to represent her country, and she also wanted to emphasize her sympathy for the Israeli hostages still being held in Gaza.
– I am filled with many emotions, excitement, hopes, and I am also a little nervous. But most of all I want to give the best performance I know I can give, she wrote.
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– I am honored and filled with pride to represent our country. This song represents us, all of us, including those who are home and those who are not there, we are waiting for you, she wrote.
Her ballad has something unsettling about it, not surprising since it’s about the massacre that took place at the Nova song festival on October 7, where several hundred young people were killed by Hamas activists, a massacre that sparked today’s war.
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The Golan is of course aware of how contentious Israel’s participation is this year. Not only have artists in many European countries called for a boycott in protest against her country’s participation. In Norway, NRK’s permanent panel of commentators would not participate if Israel wanted to sit.
More participants
But what few know is that Israeli involvement in Eurovision goes far deeper than just the three-minute long ballad Hurricane by Eden Golan.
There are actually two Israelis running this year. After not taking part in Eurovision for 33 years, Luxemburg will sit, and the artist who won the local competition was precisely the Israeli Tali Golergant. She is also probably aware that her ethnic background can be disputed, so in interviews she has time and again emphasized that she is more than anything else “international”, since she must have lived in at least five countries during her 23 years.
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But in an interview with an Israeli newspaper, Golerant says that it has long been difficult to be an Israeli or Jewish artist out in the big world.
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– I know what it means to be Jewish in the world, and it is tough. You must be proud, but also cautious. I don’t hide it, but yes, I have to be wise and careful, she said. At the latest last week, the newspaper Haaretz published an article in which a large number of Israeli artists and performers said that, since the war in Gaza started, they are no longer invited to foreign exhibitions or performances.
Israeli main sponsor
However, the largest Israeli involvement in Eurovision 2024 in Malmö is undoubtedly linked to the sponsors. Eurovision has six sponsors, including the airline Easyjet and the Norwegian-established cruise line Royal Caribbean. But the main sponsor is Moroccan Oil, an Israeli company that sells skin and hair products based on Moroccan argan oil.
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Some have gone so far as to claim that the reason Israel was not excluded from Eurovision this year was precisely because of this Israeli main sponsor. But this company also keeps a low Israeli profile these days.
If you go to the Norwegian-language website of Moroccan Oil, it is difficult at all to understand which country the skin and hair products come from. The Hebrew-language website, on the other hand, says that they need new employees, and encourages people to apply for a job with them.
Moroccan Oil is produced in Maalot-Tarshiha, a town in northern Israel that has come under frequent rocket attacks from the Hizballah guerrillas in Lebanon in recent months.
(The first Eurovision semi-final in Malmö starts on Tuesday 7 May. Israel and Eden Golan will be on stage in the second semi-final on Thursday 9 May, so will Norway and Gåte. The final is Saturday 11 May).
