Good that Israel will participate in Eurovision – chance for historic protest

On Monday discovereds a mass grave with 300 bodies in southern Gaza. So far, 13,000 Palestinian children have died. 20,000 are orphans. These are unprecedented numbers.

Despite this, Israel is allowed to participate in Eurovision.

Israel has for decades annexed, occupied and harassed. And yet they have been allowed to participate, year after year. They say themselves that Eurovision is a litmus test for how the outside world views them.

I understand those who think that is enough now. You are not welcome here.

But how many countries have clean hands? It is Danish bombs falling on Gaza. Sweden was one of the few countries that cut aid to the UNHCR, we thereby contributed to Netanyahu’s project to starve the Palestinian people to death. Israel would be nothing
without the USA, which has constituted its own voting category in Eurovision.

This year, everyone who watches the program gets to vote.

Purely moral standing I’m on the side of the boycotters, but strategically, Israel’s participation is a golden opportunity. For one night, the whole world has the opportunity to boo them and make sure they come last.

Israel’s involvement also forces all friends of Palestine to be reminded of Hamas’ diabolical terrorist attacks on 7/10. To see the sadness and pain of one’s opponent is to practice being human.

The ideas that one and the other should be boycotted and excluded are not new, but not very old either.

Tommie Smith and John Carlos represented the United States in the 1968 Mexico Olympics. The United States was allowed to participate despite its race laws—the United States is always allowed to participate—and they ran their races.
Had it been today, Smith and Carlos might have stayed home, but they were there.
When the Star-Spangled Banner was raised, they performed the most powerful manifestation ever seen. With fists clenched in black leather and feet without shoes, they inspired an entire world.

They still do. No medalist in any single event in any single Olympics outshines the memory of this silent gesture in Mexico City.

Don’t most people dream of doing something similar? In Malmö there are all the possibilities.

Think that under it the big tonal rise suddenly take off one skirt and expose another underneath, in green, red, white and black. Or to sit in the green room and hold up a sign with the account number of Doctors Without Borders, which is fighting in an area where
the healthcare system is completely wiped out. You are guaranteed to be disqualified, like Smith and Carlos, but you become immortal.

The problem with that strategy is that the responsibility is placed on the participants. The risk is great that everyone in Malmö will act as if Gaza does not exist, which Gaza hardly does anymore, but I dare to believe in something else: a protest that goes down in history.

Biggest of all would be if Eden Golan turns out to have panther beats and changes the chorus, so it becomes a support for the Palestinians’ right to a country of their own yesterday, today, tomorrow.