Spyke

Israel remains in Eurovision

Ireland, Spain, the Netherlands and Slovenia will boycott next year's Eurovision Song Contest, after Israel was allowed to compete.

They were among a number of countries who had called for Israel to be excluded over the humanitarian toll of the war in Gaza, and accusations of unfair voting practices.

Despite calls for a vote on Israel's participation, members instead approved a new set of rules intended to protect the integrity of the contest.

Ireland's national broadcaster RTE said it felt that its "participation remains unconscionable given the appalling loss of lives in Gaza and the humanitarian crisis there which continues to put the lives of so many civilians at risk."

In a statement, Dutch broadcaster Avrotros said that "participation under the current circumstances is incompatible with the public values ​​that are essential to us".

Spanish broadcaster RTVE added: "The board of directors of RTVE agreed last September that Spain would withdraw from Eurovision if Israel was part of it."

"This withdrawal also means that RTVE will not broadcast the Eurovision 2026 final... nor the preliminary semi-finals."

Continue reading here - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cde6d8wyp79o

Israel remains in Eurovisionhttps://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cde6d8wyp79oOpen linkView original on feddit.uk
literature.cafe

I understand that about half do. Unfortunately, like the US, they aren’t the half that count

18
pulsewidthreply
lemmy.world

82% of them are happy to expel all Gaza's Palestinian residents, that doesn't sound like people who experience shame for their governmeng killing ~40k civilian women and children over the last few years.

A further 56% favour expelling all Israeli citizens with Palestinian bloodlines and a lovely 47%..

agreed that "when conquering an enemy city, the Israel Defense Forces should act as the Israelites did in Jericho under Joshua's command – killing all its inhabitants." Sixty-five percent said they believed in the existence of a modern-day incarnation of Amalek, the Israelite biblical enemy whom God commanded to wipe out in Deuteronomy 25:19. Among those believers, 93 percent said the commandment to erase Amalek's memory remains relevant today.

https://archive.is/nNzq4

I'm not seeing much conscience or shame in those numbers.

35
literature.cafe

I’d like to know how Israelis as a whole respond to these questions, since this sounds like it surveyed only religious conservatives.

13
literature.cafe

No, it wasn’t founded by and for extremists. But extremists do seem to be the only group represented in Netanyahu’s bid to stay out of prison (ahem) “government”

1

No, it hasn’t. Unfortunately, like any movement that accumulates sufficient power, it obviously has the potential to become terroristic

0
lemmy.world

lived there a few years, not wanting apartheid is a fringe minority opinion that will likely get you beaten up if people hear you.

the "left" there just wants to return to when apartheid was invisible and they can kill palestinians slowly.

3

given the context, I am assuming it's obvious, A year in raanana, 3 in Eilat. left on part because apartheid is everywhere in Israel and 99% of Israelis will gaslight you to ignore your own eyes.

1

"Commissioned in March by Pennsylvania State University and conducted by Tamir Sorek for the Israeli polling firm Geocartography Knowledge Group, the survey polled a representative sample of 1,005 Jewish Israelis. It posed a series of "impolite" questions – topics typically avoided in mainstream Israeli polling – about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."

3

Well - conscienc and shame are just emotions that make us adhere to social rules.

After a pogrom in the 13th century the citicens of my city repented formally and build a church on the ground of the former Jewish quarter. They repented for having the Jews allowed to live in the city.

It's very probable that a good portion of the 93 percent of Jewish Israelis who agreed that the commandment to erase Amalek's memory remains relevant today are indeed ashamed that they haven't managed to erase the memory of Palastine yet.

If the comittment to genocide a neighbour is this deeply engrained in a culture I'm sort of desperate. All genocides I recall that were not (mostly) successfull were only stopped by external military intervention.

3
acargitzreply
lemmy.ca

This is antisemitism. Don't do it, don't upvote it, don't spread it. Israeli ethnonationalism is not reducible to the Jewish religion. There is nothing in Judaism that deterministically leads to apartheid and genocide. Many Jews see the "chosen people" story as an intergenerational responsibility to unfuck the world (Tikkun Olam). Many Jews are antizionists precisely because of their Judaism.

26
feddit.uk

But it’s also the central conceit of Zionism. Things can be more than one thing at the same time.

16
acargitzreply
lemmy.ca

There is nothing unique about Zionism in how it weaponizes religion. Same as "Christian nationalism" in the US, like Hindutva in India, like all kinds of Islamism, like Francoism or like any other clerical fascism. We should be better than to accept the weaponized forms of religions. Unless you consider something as silly as "Mohammed was a pedophile" as a useful counter to Daesh, which is terminally unserious.

11

WTF are you talking about. It is of course possible to be antisemitic towards Zionists.

And the «semitic» argument is bullshit, it is basically rehashing 19th century white supremacist pseudoscientific racism. The term is currently basically only used to describe language families similar to the term «indo-european».

The word antisemitism has a precise meaning: the «discrimination, prejudice, hostility or violence against Jews as Jews (or Jewish institutions as Jewish)

-2

Might wanna let the evangelical christian community know that, “Israel being gods chosen people” is still very much the core of it’s belief.

2
Yeatherreply
lemmy.ca

The problem with this statement is both outlooks are true. Some jews see the chosen people story as an intergenerational responsibility to unfuck the world. While others see it as inheriting the world and all that is on it.

0

I grew up thinking it meant that it's an obligation to help the world, not a license to fuck it up. lots of Jews would agree with me. but lots live with the belief that the world was made for them to do as they please. they are assholes who coopt Judaism, fuck em.

1

even though the theology of it is a lot more like "that is your god, and you belong to his people. it's a lot of responsibility, he throws tantrums a lot"

2

The fact that this was up for debate, the fact that there are countries that choose to boycott as a result, the fact that this is news: these are wins people. The cracks have formed and it's starting to buckle. It is now normal and mainstream to talk about boycotting the genocidal Israeli apartheid regime. Even the German apartheid-apologist institutions are forced to say they respect the decisions of non-apologist ones. Don't take this as reason for cynicism and disappointment, it's quite the opposite! Apartheid South Africa didn't get boycotted, isolated and forced to recon with its crimes all at once, it was a process. KEEP PUSHING!

70
sh.itjust.works

What consequences? That they won't win this year either?

Oh, you mean the EBU probably. One of the Big 5 leaving is really something. I can't imagine Spain leaving the EBU itself though.

39
BakerBagelreply
midwest.social

Iceland, Belgium, and Portugal are likely to leave as well, with the Polish Culture minister calling for a boycott if Israel participates a few months ago. The more countries that drop, the more expensive it will be to participate for the remaining countries as well.

38
huppakeereply
piefed.social

the more expensive it will be to participate for the remaining countries as well.

I don't think the boycotting countries will leave the EBU or stop paying for their membership.

7
BakerBagelreply
midwest.social

No, but the participants still have to pay a lot towards the show. They don't just get to piggy back off of the host amd Big 5. There are participation fees that cover the EBU expenses. Those have to be covered in by the participation fees

7

The point of ESC is to get around 9 hours of content for much cheaper than broadcasters can normally do.

So for example, at the highest end of participation in the big 5, the BBC pays a fee of £300,000, and about the same again for production costs such as delegation hotels. That’s about the price of 2 hours’ worth of EastEnders. Per hour, its the cost of a mid-range game show.

In total, the fees reach around £5 million. The host nation’s broadcaster is then on the hook for the rest of the cost, which is usually an additional £8-18m. Effectively, unless everyone quits and there’s no-one to compete, ORF will be expected to cover any shortfall caused by the boycott.

9
feddit.org

One of the Big Five (they are the largest financial contributors) leaving is, financially, indeed something.
As the ESC is only one part of the EBU (yet the most prominent one for the public) beside sharing of media, news and technical collaboration, leaving the EBU completely over the israeli participation at the ESC would give that occassion way too much relevance.

18

leaving the EBU completely over the israeli participation at the ESC would give that occassion way too much relevance.

whilst i agree, i think it’s also important to acknowledge that non-participation in ESC isn’t about non-participation in ESC… it’s not like they’re not participating because they don’t like israel’s songs; it’s about a principal. if the decision was made about israel to do with ESC it says something about the EBUs values and how it’s being run

non-participation isn’t meant as a punishment, and it’s not even really about ESC: it’s meant to be a statement to the EBU as a whole: we don’t support this and won’t support anyone who does

6
lemmy.world

The main sponsor of the show, Moroccanoil, is an Israeli company. This was obvious.

52

If you are thinking that it may be appropriation of another culture's denomination...man, it's Israel. They go around saying that Bagels and Hummus are their thing.

4
huppakeereply
piefed.social

Maybe not, the Olympics survived a genocide so maybe Eurovision will get through this somehow

12
plythreply
feddit.org

the Olympics survived a genocide

Did they? There will also be an official Eurovision Sing Contest, but will it be the ESC?

3
CyberEggreply
discuss.tchncs.de

Did they?

Yes, they're still very popular despite being hosted by the OG Nazis in 1936.

13
slrpnk.net

i may be misinterpreting but i think the other poster is saying the olympics ceased to be what they had been up to that point and what we have now is a zombie masquerading as the olympics

5

The Olympics used to be for amateurs only and athletes who were professional and earned their living from a sport weren't allowed to compete. I remember reading about the UK's Torvil & Dean figure skaters who after their win at the olympics in the 80's went pro... and a couple of olympics later there was massive debate and changes to rules to allow them to compete again.

All the modern olympics of the last 30-40yrs are about is faux national pride and money... same for the bodies of all sports... they're all corrupt and they're all about stockpiling as much cash as they can for bribes and kickbacks... some of them like FIFA have hundreds of millions of cash reserves... But they don't pay countries to host the world cup, the countries pay them, pay for the construction, pay for the infrastructure and FIFA reaps in the sponsorship and TV money.

8

I hope more broadcasters drop out. Either it'll force their hand to expel all genocidal nations or make Eurovision a joke and viewership crashes.

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narinciyereply
discuss.tchncs.de

I think you have intelligence to share with us. Where are they then? Demonstrate us, give us their addresses

3
narinciyereply
discuss.tchncs.de

There's no information there about their current whereabouts in that article. Not even one mention of west bank. Have you read before sending it?

2

Who said anything about the west bank? You need to stay on target mate.

Heres the relevant excerpt:

Hamas's political leadership has resided in Doha, Qatar, since 2012, in an arrangement supported by the United States. In 2024, Hamas explored moving its political headquarters to another country, such as Oman, amidst pressure from the United States and Israel over Qatar's failure to use its leverage with Hamas to facilitate a ceasefire deal to the Gaza war.

The previous chairman, Yahya Sinwar, led Hamas from Gaza Strip, Palestine, since he also led the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip. Sinwar was the first chairman of Hamas Political Bureau to reside in Gaza Strip, doing so while the Gaza war was ongoing. The chairman of Hamas Political Bureau usually lived outside the Gaza Strip, due to the security reasons.

So according to this, the current leadership resides in Qatar (which is outside of the Gaza Strip and the west bank). Furthermore, Yahya Sinwar is the first head Hamas terrorists to reside in the Gaza Strip. So in the past and future Hamas was and still is not all in The Gaza Strip.

-1
D_C
sh.itjust.works

The boycotting countries should stay in and sing about how israeli's are genocidal murderers.

32
ඞmirreply
lemmy.ml

Except for all those times when Israel made songs about heroically blowing up children

27
lemmy.dbzer0.com

Ireland, Netherlands, Spain, and Slovenia should make their own Eurovision

21

We have the same discussion every year and the European Broadcast Union is not restricted to countries in Europe.

8

Eurovision is not for Europe, it's for channels subscribed to the European Broadcast Union

Which includes Australia (in fact they're the biggest customer outside of continental EU)

4
lemmy.ml

We will not be watching and I'll be sharing all the better alternatives to it. Like not supporting murder, genocide, state supported rapes, starving children, burning aid and many many more.

6

I think its great that countries are excluding themselves on this basis.

However, im not surprised that the contest has remained agnostic and that israel has not withdrawn.

5
lemmy.world

some people are so traumatised from internet conversations they get all defensive about anything. like chill, I was agreeing with you

1

Unfortunately with how the Dutch public broadcasting system works Eurovision wil still be broadcasted in the Netherlands. AVROTROS is an independent public broadcasting organization however it broadcasts it’s programming via the NPO the Dutch public broadcasting governing body. And NPO is also a member of EBU so the next Eurovision will be broadcasted by the NPO.

4

So European countries are dropping out while the non European Israel can continue.

Mmmmm, one wonders how that happened. One also wonders if these people that decided to boycott Eurovision over this are antisemitesor just people with a heart.

Fuck the Israeli government.

Jail Netanyahu, retreat all your forces back into Israel, allow an independent Palestinian state, pay reparations to Palestine state, beg all Palestinians forgiveness for your 5+ decades crimes, then beg the world for forgiveness for calling everyone that protested their crimes and antisemite, and then maybe maybe maybe they should be allowed back into the world.

4