In short, Israel will be allowed to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest 2024, which has led to calls for a boycott. A petition against Israel’s participation has been signed by over 5,600 people here in Norway. They demand that Israel be banned from the competition. Social debater, nurse and musician Marthe Valle is one of those working for a boycott of Israel in Eurovision. news has the rights to show Eurovision in Norway, and Valle believes that news should make demands on Eurovision to exclude Israel. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) has decided that Israel may participate, which news takes “into account”. The EBU clarifies that the competition is a non-political event. The summary is made by an AI service from OpenAI. The content is quality assured by news’s journalists before publication. Last week it was announced that Israel will be allowed to take part in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) in Malmö together with 36 other countries. Due to Israel’s warfare in Gaza, several people react to Israel being allowed to participate in the competition. Among other things, a heated debate is taking place in Iceland, where several thousand have signed a petition to prevent Israel from participating. These are the participating countries in the Eurovision Song Contest. Photo: Screenshot taken 13.12.23 Also here in Norway, several people are reacting to Israel’s participation in the competition. – I think that those who organize Eurovision should put a stop to Israel’s participation, says social debater, nurse and musician Marthe Valle. – news must come up with demands. She says that she has worked for a boycott of Israel in Eurovision for many years. Now she has created a signature campaign. Over 5,600 people have signed the petition. Here they demand that “Israel be banned from Eurovision in 2024, and that Norway and news actively demand that this happens”. “We are going to implement extensive boycott campaigns of Eurovision, of course not”, they write further. If Israel is not banned, they announce boycott campaigns of Eurovision. Marthe Valle is a social debater, nurse and artist. She has herself participated in Melodi Grand Prix. Photo: Jens Kristian Rimau – news has the rights to show Eurovision in Norway. news should make clear demands on the Eurovision administration and show that you cannot stand behind Israel’s participation, says Valle. news’s entertainment director Charlo Halvorsen writes in an e-mail that news takes the decision to the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) to allow Israel to participate “for information”. – We are in talks with other broadcasters in the Nordics, but have not finally decided on what we will do. I think Russia and Israel are treated differently The decision about Russia came quickly. Just days after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, it became known that Russia was banned from the competition. Now Russia is banned for the third year in a row. – This joins a long, long, long series of examples of how Russia and Israel are treated very differently in the West, Valle believes. Charlo Halvorsen, news’s entertainment editor. Photo: Ole Berg-Rusten / NTB Valle reacts to Halvorsen’s statement to VG where he pointed out that there was “a clear difference between the situation with Russia and that with Israel”. – Then you talk as if this conflict started on 7 October. He didn’t, she says. Around 1,200 Israelis were killed when Hamas carried out the terrorist attack against Israel on 7 October, according to Israeli authorities. Since then, over 18,600 people have been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza, according to Hamas-controlled health authorities. The UN regularly refers to the number of those killed. Halvorsen writes that he reckons that they have “a fairly similar understanding of the terrible conditions for the civilian population in Gaza now”. – And of course know very well that the conflict in the Middle East has a very long history, he writes. – Everything is politics The competition has several rules. Among them is a rule that the contributions must not be of such a nature that they can give the EBU and ESC a bad reputation. No texts of a political nature are allowed. This meant, for example, that Belarus’s contribution was rejected for the second time in a row in 2021. – But absolutely everything is politics, including song competitions, says Valle. – By legitimizing Israel’s participation in Eurovision, one also helps to legitimize the way the entire state of Israel conducts its politics. Especially the occupation of Palestine, he believes. It was Noa Kirel who represented Israel in the Eurovision Song Contest in Liverpool in 2023. Photo: Martin Meissner / AP news’s entertainment director Charlo Halvorsen writes that “the discussion about boycotting a country because of a violent and brutal leadership is somewhat more complicated”. – It is also possible to say that it makes sense to maintain, for example, cultural exchange. But as I said, I fully understand that the discussion will come, he writes. – Non-political incident news has been in contact with the EBU, which does not wish to answer specific questions related to this case. By e-mail, they send a statement about Israel’s participation. – This is a competition for broadcasters, not governing authorities. The Israeli broadcaster has shared for 50 years, they write. Furthermore, the EBU writes that they have agreed “that the Israeli broadcaster fulfills all the competition rules and can participate in the competition next year”. – The EBU is in line with other international organizations that have maintained their inclusive attitude towards Israeli participants in major competitions at this time. Russia’s contribution in 2021. It was the last time they participated in the competition. Photo: PIROSCHKA VAN DE WOUW / Reuters They specify that the competition is “a non-political event”. – Comparisons between wars and conflicts are very complex and difficult. As a non-political media organisation, we do not make such comparisons, they write. At the same time, the EBU writes that Russia’s exclusion is due to “repeated breaches of member obligations and breaches of attitudes towards the media”.
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Israel took part in Eurovision – several demand a boycott – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
