Eurovision – Israeli ice front against Norway:

Israel advanced to the Eurovision final on Thursday evening. The participation is extremely controversial and was met by thousands of demonstrators in Malmö as a result of the war in Gaza.

Inside the arena, the performance was also greeted with boos.

Nor is the atmosphere the best between the Israeli press and Gåte and the Norwegian delegation.

– Refuses to talk

During Gåte’s performance, which came shortly after the Israeli artist, Eden Golan, the Israeli media lashed out at Norway.

– They refused to talk to us, and we refuse to talk to them. The delegation itself is considered a great enemy by both the Israeli delegation and the journalists here, writes the Israeli journalist Yaniv Dornbush in his live blog in the Walla newspaper about Gåte.

The Israeli newspaper Mako also takes out the butcher’s knife against the Norwegian contribution.

– Norway, who really, really don’t like us, came up with a screaming show, and they must be really embarrassed to go on stage after the Israeli number. Unfortunately, it looks like they are going to the finals. They don’t deserve that, writes Mako.

– Don’t look us in the eye

After the semi-final, Dornbush explains his formulations to Dagbladet.

– Why did you call Norway a big enemy today?

– It was because of what happened on the turquoise runner. We wanted to interview them and ask them two or three non-political questions. The PR person asked where we were from, says Dornbush and continues:

– When we answered Israel, he told them, and they skipped talking to us. They didn’t even look us in the eye. They didn’t give any reason why they didn’t want to talk to us.

These went further

He explains that the tone of the live blog should be funny and sarcastic.

– That’s why we wrote enemy. We do not mean that we have a war between Israel and Norway, or that we do not like Norwegians in general. This is only about the specific band and their specific behavior, says the Israeli journalist.

– Incorrect

The Norwegian Eurovision general Stig Karlsen denied such discrimination when he was asked about this on Wednesday.

– We are aware of this claim, but it is not true. We avoid no one and talk to as many media as possible to promote Gåte og musikken, says Karlsen and adds:

We reviewed song by song

– The demand is so great that we have to continuously make assessments on where we should spend our time to the best of our ability. There were hundreds of journalists accredited to the Eurovision opening ceremony. Unfortunately, there are many people we don’t get to talk to, says Stig Karlsen, delegation leader for Norway at Eurovision.