The Blogs: When Push comes to shove will ‘Unity Shape Love’

Screenshot from Irish Palestinian Solidarity Campaign website

Political controversy is not new to the Eurovision. So far, in recent times the contest has been politically affected by the following:

Continuing conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan in the late 2000s.
The 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea and the war in Donbas.
The aftermath of the Russo-Georgian War.

And then we have Israel’s involvement in the Eurovision…

In 1973, Israel became the first country from outside of Europe to enter the Eurovision. Impressive! It has remained a regular competitor in the contest and been crowned winner on four occasions.

The Eurovision was regularly broadcast in the Arab world during the 1970s. But in 1978 changes happened. When it became apparent that Israel was on course to win, the Jordanian broadcaster JTV hastily ended its transmission… due to “technical difficulties”. (1)

Many Eurovision-eligible Arab states choose not to enter because of Israel’s presence. Perhaps Koranic cultural deficit hampers song-writing abilities in those countries? Or is the real reason for abstention because the mullahs state that music is ‘haram‘ (forbidden)? (2)

Those absentions are hardly due to petty political pique and point-scoring, are they??

What are the idealistic aims of the Eurovision?

Every May, many millions of viewers watch Eurovision. Some people groan at the banal bubblegum lyrics; others gasp at the outrageous costumes. Social media evolves with many memes, nerds learn about contestants and express opinions of the asinine songs.

But where and how did it all start? After World War 2, some European countries wanted to collaborate together, leading to the beginning of the European Broadcasting Union in 1950. For sixty years Eurovision has featured 1,500 songs, spanning many different genres, sung in a polyglot panoply. Ireland has won Eurovision seven times.

That impressive cache of Irish prizes will get soon overclouded, replaced in the public consciousness by yet more unaesthetic antisemitism. A few small demonstrations organised by the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign (ISPC) have happened outside the headquarters of RTE, the Irish national broadcaster.

The IPSC’s wooden-worded, campaign rallying cry claims that: ‘RTÉ is allowing itself, and by extension all TV license payers, to be used to bolster Israel’s art-washing propaganda machine as it continues its genocidal assault on the Palestinian people.’ (3)

This kind of stifling censorship is particularly ironic to Irish Jews (as well as the minority of open-minded intelligentsia). The pungent pro-Palestinian people who support Kneecap seem to be the same “anti-Zionists” who are calling to ban Israel’s Yuval Raphael from Eurovision 2025. Hypocritical double standards when push comes to shove!

“Unity Shapes Love”- is the 2025 Eurovision banner theme.

That aspirational theme belies the simmering tensions behind the scenes as several broadcasters. RTÉ, Spain’s RTVE and Slovenia’s RTV are asking for a debate on Israel’s involvement in the festival. However, the EBU’s position has always been that it is an association of broadcasters, not governments. Kan TV (in Israel) has a right to take part.’ (4)

In similar cultural censorship news, last week Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood and Dudu Tassa blamed threats from pro-Palestinian activists for the cancellation of their upcoming UK shows.“Intimidating venues into pulling our shows won’t help achieve the peace and justice everyone in the Middle East deserves.” (5)

As the late-great liberal Jewish journalist, Nat Hentoff, once said: “Free Speech for me for not for Thee…”

In one of King David’s ancient songs, which no doubt would be censored if entered into Eurovision heats, he confidently states that:

God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging. Psalm 46

אלוהים הוא המקלט והכוח שלנו, עזר תמידי בעת צרה. לכן לא נירא, גם אם האדמה תיפול וההרים יפלו אל לב הים, אף על פי שמימיו שואגים וקצפים וההרים רועדים מגשאם.

Sources:

Behind the scenes and even the losses, from all of Israel’s years at the Eurovision Song Contest https://www.kan.org.il/content/archive1/archivemusic/p-670963/

Telegraph columnist Jake Wallis Simons reacts to the campaign to ban Israel from Eurovision — and to boycott singer Yuval Raphael https://x.com/GBNEWS/status/1920832376529186864