Outrage over Israel’s song, silence over Rwanda’s war

In the months leading up to, during, and even after the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest, public outrage over Israel’s participation was widespread. Petitions circulated, op-eds practically wrote themselves, and calls for cultural boycotts rang loudly across social media, newsrooms, and political forums. Israel had to be banned — for the sake of “morality.” 

At the very same time, Rwanda is calmly preparing to host the upcoming UCI Cyclocross World Championships. No outrage. No op-eds. No symbolic boycotts. No flags being turned upside down. No protesting artists. 

And yet Rwanda is directly involved in one of the deadliest and most underreported wars in the world: the ongoing conflict in Eastern Congo. 

M23 fighters (Al Jazeera English, Wiki Commons)

Since 2021, the M23 rebel group — armed, trained, and politically backed by Rwanda — has waged a brutal military campaign against both the Congolese army and civilian populations. According to the United Nations, over 2.5 million people have been displaced in the North Kivu province alone. UN investigators report systematic attacks on villages, the use of child soldiers, rape as a weapon of war, and the strategic seizure of mining zones to smuggle gold and coltan across the Rwandan border. 

In February 2024, the city of Sake was virtually emptied after being encircled by M23 forces. In March, UN observers were attacked. Amnesty International reported a surge in executions and arbitrary arrests in areas under M23 control in early 2025. 

And Kigali? Denies everything — despite overwhelming satellite imagery, intercepted communications, and countless eyewitness accounts. 

Still, outrage is nowhere to be found. 

Selective indignation 

I’m not writing this to shield the Israeli government from criticism. But I do seriously question the ease with which Israel is morally quartered in cultural and diplomatic spaces, while Rwanda — with no less blood on its hands — is wrapped in silence and caution. 

What does it say about our European and Belgian moral credibility that we go into convulsions over Israel performing on a stage, while not a single editorial has questioned whether Rwanda should host a world sporting event? Where are the petitions, the symbolic gestures, the cultural protests? 

Belgian hypocrisy 

Belgium — with its deep historical ties to both Congo and Rwanda — should know better. In 2024, Prime Minister De Croo openly acknowledged that Rwanda was “de facto waging war” on Congolese territory. Belgium suspended arms exports and reconsidered diplomatic ties. But that’s where it ends. No symbolic protest against the World Championships. No statements from the cultural sector. No flags removed from Flemish broadcasters. The very same voices that claim Israel must be silenced fall curiously silent when it comes to Kigali. 

European inertia 

The European Union follows the same pattern: strong words, feeble action. In April 2024, military support to Rwanda was temporarily frozen. But development aid and political dialogue remain untouched. Rwanda is still considered a “stabilizing partner” in the region — despite clear violations of UN resolutions. 

If Israel strikes a Hamas target near a hospital, emergency debates follow in the European Parliament. If M23 — backed by Rwanda — bombs a school in North Kivu? Utter silence. 

Media blindness and framing 

Public interest in Gaza is intense. Understandably so. But that intensity is rarely driven by a balanced understanding of facts or context. Instead, it stems from years of framing, where Israel is almost always the aggressor — and where the moral bar is set significantly higher than for any other actor: be it Hamas or Rwanda. 

Israeli actions are tracked in real time, broadcast with live updates, opinion pieces, and rapid-fire fact-checks. Every airstrike becomes breaking news. Meanwhile, Eastern Congo barely makes it onto page ten — a footnote in an annual UN report. 

Gaza is visual, dramatic, immediate. Congo is messy, distant, complex — and thus invisible. The result? Rwanda, despite being deeply involved in mass atrocities, escapes moral scrutiny. Israel, by contrast, is held to a uniquely intense ethical standard, and judged accordingly — always. 

The problem is Israel 

Through it all, one constant remains: Israel is not judged like any other state. Not like Congo. Not like Rwanda. Not like Turkey. Not like China. Always differently. Every military action — however justified — is immediately folded into a narrative in which Israel is presumed guilty before any fact is considered. Even when defending its own civilians from atrocity. 

It’s no longer about policy. It’s about identity. Israel is Israel. And so the bar is simply elsewhere. 

A call for moral consistency 

I am not asking for silence on Gaza. I am asking for coherence. If we demand cultural boycotts as a reaction to armed conflict, Rwanda must be included. If we demand sanctions for civilian casualties, we must also demand them for Turkey, Rwanda, or Iran. If the Israeli flag must be removed from a stage, then surely we should at least ask why the Rwandan flag is still waving above a sports arena. 

A moral reflex that is only triggered by the word “Israel” is not a moral compass. It is hypocrisy.