That is why Israel is not kicked out of Eurovision – Statement

Despite the calls, despite the posters, despite the protesters who have flocked to NRK and other broadcasters in recent months. This year’s Eurovision Song Contest begins today. And on Thursday, Israeli Eden Golan will enter the stage in Malmö, in the second semi-final, to perform the song “Hurricane”. On stage there is a show, in the background there is a bang from Israel’s warfare in Gaza. But the many who have thought that this is inappropriate, so inappropriate that Israel should have been thrown out of the competition, have not won out. Why not?

Let’s look at the difficult term “political”. The EBU, the association of public broadcasters that organizes the Eurovision Song Contest, wants more than anything in the world to keep politics out of the competition.

It is clearly an illusion. The Eurovision Song Contest has always been political, even if we up here in the safe north-west have been allowed to forget that sometimes. In many countries, especially in the countries that were once behind the Iron Curtain, participation in the Eurovision Song Contest is a heavy symbol. It is the very marker that you live in an equal, Western European country.

Take Estonia. When the country won the final in Copenhagen in 2001, there was a public celebration for days. Prime Minister Mart Laar declared: “We liberated ourselves from the Soviet Union through song. Now we’re going to sing our way into Europe”.

Or take Bosnia and Herzegovina, which participated for the first time as an independent nation in 1993. At the time, there was a full civil war in the former Yugoslavia. The Bosnian capital Sarajevo was under siege, and the artists who were to take part in the final in Ireland had to flee the city in the middle of the night. They were shot at.

The singer told the BBC many years later how he had lost his shoes and had to run barefoot through the snow. What he remembered most was the feeling of doing something significant. That it was also entertainment meant nothing.

“We were the first to show our independence, to prove it,” he said. “We were the first ever to represent Bosnia at an international level. We proved that our country existed”.

Nevertheless, the EBU tries everything they can to keep politics out. If the songs are too political, the lyrics must be changed. It is probably necessary. Politics is, by its very nature, divisive. It is about power, about conflicts, about issues people disagree about, about different visions for the future of countries and continents. Anyone who wants to create a unifying event must be able to create a space where such disputes are left at the door.

But then come the situations where the non-political becomes political. Where not taking a stand is no longer perceived as neutral or inclusive. In modern Eurovision history, it has happened twice that countries have been banned in ways that might be relevant to this year’s tumult.

The first was when Yugoslavia disintegrated, and Slobodan Miloševićs government in Belgrade went to war against the breakaway countries. That led to Yugoslavia, what was left, being banned from the Eurovision Song Contest for twelve years, before they took part again in 2004 as Serbia and Montenegro.

But it was simply a formality that made it possible to keep the country out. The Yugoslav broadcaster disbanded in 1992, and when a new one was established, it was not allowed to join the EBU due to the international sanctions against Miloševićs regime.

Then it is perhaps more natural to compare the debate about Israel with the exclusion of Russia in 2022. Shortly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, it became known that the country would not be allowed to participate in Eurovision. It was not long ago then that the EBU had said that Russia would be allowed to participate as normal.

When they reversed their decision, it seemed as if they had caved in to pressure. Norway had then been among the countries that had requested that Russia be thrown out, along with Finland, Iceland and the Netherlands. Finland had said that they were not going to send any contribution to the final if Russia was allowed to participate.

Many of this year’s demonstrators refer to this story. They ask questions about why the individual member states took a position two years ago, but not now. But for the decision-makers, the situations were probably still experienced as different.

Because it was hardly just the reactions of some of the member states that were decisive in 2022. In the period after the invasion of Ukraine, there was a flurry of sanctions from the West. After some hectic talks and negotiations, a united Europe cut political and cultural ties with Putin’s Russia. Just before the EBU reached its decision, the country had lost the Champions League final in football, which was moved to Paris. Not participating in the boycott of Russia would probably appear to be more actively political, more of a position taken, than participating.

In both Ukraine and Gaza, innocent civilians are dying in droves. For the organizations that have to decide on the two wars, it probably still feels less complicated to sanction Russia than Israel. It has to do with several things.

The NRK management has pointed out that it is the Israeli broadcaster, not the country of Israel, that is a member of the EBU. This broadcaster is considered independent from the Israeli state, in a way that Russian media could not be said to be.

It also has to do with society and politics in general. The broadcasters are independent, but they are still reluctant to pursue a policy on their own that goes against what can be called a broad political consensus. As of today, there is no widespread boycott of Israel in Western European countries, although many strong voices have called for it.

If it would have been perceived as “political” to include Russia, it would probably have been perceived as more “political” to exclude Israel. There would be talk of entering into a conflict that spans several decades. And it would probably feel difficult on a continent that has a dark history with the Holocaust, and that has a Jewish minority to look after.

These are probably some of the reasons why it has turned out the way it has. The reactions and demonstrations that follow are a consequence that the EBU must endure, as long as they are peaceful. The Eurovision Song Contest is meant to be a free space, a glittering bubble that you can step into and forget the world for a few hours. But sometimes the world works hard not to be forgotten.