EGN NEWS DESK
Just hours earlier than this 12 months’s Eurovision Song Contest closing was set to start on Saturday in Malmo, Sweden, round 5,000 pro-Palestinian demonstrators marched by means of the town heart to protest Israel’s participation within the competitors.
Waving big Palestinian flags and accompanied by drummers, the protesters shouted slogans together with, “Eurovision, you’ll be able to’t conceal, you’re supporting genocide,” and “Free, free Palestine.”
The demonstration, two days after an identical march in Malmo that the Swedish police stated concerned round 12,000 individuals, was the most recent signal of some Eurovision followers’ discontent with Israel’s involvement within the high-profile contest due to the battle in Gaza.
At Eurovision, singers representing their international locations compete for votes from music-industry juries and a tv viewers. Although not a part of Europe, Israel has competed since 1973 and gained 4 instances.
For months, pro-Palestinian teams have referred to as on Eurovision’s organizer, the European Broadcasting Union, to ban Israel from the competitors. Thousands of musicians, together with pop stars and former Eurovision entrants, signed petitions that stated there was a precedent for throwing Israel out of the occasion: In 2022, Eurovision banned Russia following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The European Broadcasting Union has repeatedly dismissed the comparability and stated Eurovision is an apolitical contest that goals to unite music followers, not divide them.
At Saturday’s protest, Loay Mogari, 39, a musician sporting a hoodie within the colours of the Palestinian flag, stated that the Israeli authorities “have been murderers.” He needed individuals in Saturday’s closing to make pro-Palestinian statements from the stage “and say the reality about Palestine,” he stated.
In comparability with the pro-Palestinian scholar protests at occupied school campuses within the United States, at which the police have made many arrests, the Malmo demonstrations have been peaceable, with few cops seen alongside the marchers and little disruption downtown.
There have been no arrests at Saturday’s march, a police spokesman stated in an e mail.
Ulf Bjereld, an skilled in Swedish-Middle East relations on the University of Gothenburg, stated in a phone interview that many Swedes empathized with the protesters. There was “very robust discontent” in Swedish society towards Israel’s actions in Gaza, Bjereld stated.
Since Israel invaded Gaza after the Oct. 7 Hamas-led assaults wherein Israel estimates about 1,200 individuals died, there was an increase in antisemitic hate crimes in Sweden, in line with information from Sweden’s National Council for Crime Prevention. There have been 110 incidents between October and December 2023, the group stated in a current report, up from 24 throughout the identical interval within the earlier 12 months.
Malmo is a metropolis of about 360,000 individuals, a 3rd of whom have been born exterior Sweden, together with many from the Middle East. Over the previous 5 months, pro-Palestinian protests have occurred repeatedly there and in different Swedish cities.
On Saturday, the marches included members of Jewish Uproar, a small group of Jewish activists protesting Israel’s actions in Gaza. Elias Rose Gordon, 23, a member sporting a skullcap within the colours of the Palestinian flag, stated that Eurovision was “hypocritical” for permitting Israel into the competition when it had banned Russia.
Pro-Palestinian shows weren’t restricted to downtown Malmo on Saturday. During a rehearsal for the Eurovision closing, attendees on the ground of the Malmo Arena waved two Palestinian flags, in line with Steve Baileys, 60, a British Eurovision fan who attended the occasion. Security shortly eliminated the merchandise, Baileys added. (Eurovision didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark, however has stated that attendees are usually not allowed to wave Palestinian flags or banners with slogans in regards to the battle between Israel and Hamas.)
Slimane, who’s representing France, stopped singing in the course of the rehearsal to name for peace. “Sorry I don’t communicate English very properly,” he stated: “Every artist right here need to sing about love and sing about peace.”
