The musician was seen wearing a keffiyeh on his arm, a symbol commonly used to show support for Palestine.
In reponse, a representative of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) said in a statement: “All performers are made aware of the rules of the contest, and we regret that Eric Saade chose to compromise the non-political nature of the event.”
Despite facing criticism for its decision not to exclude Israel and worldwide protests condemning the organizers’ choice, the competition maintained its stance.
“Politics does influence the event from time to time,” said Paul Jordan, a contest enthusiast and researcher who was part of its communications team from 2015 to 2018, in an interview with CNN.
However, he noted, “the presence of Israel has become such a big issue (that) I think it’s going to overshadow the event.”
The news comes during Israel’s seizure and closure of the Rafah crossing in Gaza, which has raised concerns that already-scarce food and medical supplies will be further depleted and lead to a “catastrophic” humanitarian disaster.
Understatement of the year -
“Politics does influence the [Eurovision] event from time to time,”
- Paul Jordan, May 2024
Genocide perpetrators are allowed to participate with explicit propaganda. Everyone else is forbidden from even alluding to the crime. Absolute scum would be better off below the soil.
Eurovision is and has always been political. They’re talking out of their asses. Also why the fuck is Israel in it? Australia I kinda get but those fucktard cultists over in Israel have built their whole identity on not being European.
At least Israel is part of the European Broadcasting Union, who’re doing the show, for historical reasons. Australia makes no sense.
What part of Australia doesn’t make sense? The vast majority of Australians are of European descent and it used to be a British colony.
same would be true for US
Isn’t Australia still part of the Commonwealth?
Why is the commonwealth relevant for non-UK nations?
It’s not about the European descent at all. Australia just loves the ESC that’s why they’re allowed to participate
They are not in the EBU.
I’m honestly glad that Eurovision is totally irrelevant in 90% of the world.
Only because those 90% are not allowed to compete /s
For real though, a similar worldwide system would be interesting to watch, I am sure.
Picking any side there is political and they’ve choosen the participation of one over a little sign of another.
I’ll add Eric Saade’s own response
Den sjalen fick jag av min pappa som liten grabb, för att aldrig glömma var familjen kommer ifrån. Då visste jag inte att den en dag skulle kallas ‘politisk symbol’. Det är som att kalla Dalahästen för politisk symbol. I mina ögon är det bara rasism. Jag ville bara vara inkluderande och bära något som är äkta för mig – men EBU verkar tycka att min etnicitet är kontroversiell. Det säger ingenting om mig, men allting om dem. Jag säger som årets ESC-slogan: United by music”.
Translated;
I got that shawl from my father as a little boy, to never forget where the family comes from. I didn’t know then that it would one day be called a ‘political symbol’. It’s like calling the Dala horse a political symbol. In my eyes, that’s just racism. I just wanted to be inclusive and wear something authentic to me – but the EBU seems to find my ethnicity controversial. It says nothing about me, but everything about them. I say as this year’s ESC slogan: United by music”.
OK now let’s try that with a different symbol:
I got that symbol of spirituality from my Indian father as a little boy. I didn’t know then that it would one day be called a ‘political symbol’. I just wanted to be inclusive and wear something authentic to me – but the EBU seems to find my ethnicity controversial. It says nothing about me, but everything about them.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swastika
I’m sorry your* family symbol is shared by Hamas. But to pretend that everyone will see that symbol and NOT think you’re pro-Palestinian is at best massively naive. You’re a grown-up now, so you have to start thinking and acting like one.
*addressing Eric, not Atomic.
Palestine ≠ Hamas.
Since your entire argument hangs on us accepting the opposite, you should probably find a new one mate.True, but it seems fairly easy to find images of Hamas fighters wearing the keffiyeh. So it’s not entirely inaccurate to say it’s shared by Hamas.
You’re comparing a kefiya with a swastika?
Hang on a sec, let me check what I wrote…
No.
Checking what you wrote, yes.
Where exactly?
Are you purposely being obtuse? You wrote two sentences, do you want me to repeat those sentences? Do you have reading comprehension issues even deciphering your own words?
While it is true that there are (a) a comparison, (b) a keffiyeh, and ( c ) a swastika in my comment, the comparison is not between the symbols but between Eric wearing the former, and a hypothetical other performer wearing the latter, and both being supposedly unaware that their symbols would be regarded as political statements.
The shawl is not the official or adopted symbol for hamas.
Unlike the swastika which was THE symbol for nazism. It’s a symbol they used to identify party alignment, who is and isn’t a nazi. Same thing cannot be said for the shawl.
And yet Russia is excluded.
Cultural Genocide vision.
Cultural? It’s a full on genocide.
Yes of course, but that is the physical Genocide of Palestinians in Palestine. Committed by israel and made possible by America, Germany, and Britain.
But now Europe as a whole is banning all traces of Palestinian culture outside of Palestine in their “song festival”.
This incident is noteworthy because does not involve the Palestinian flag. The Keffiyeh is pure Palestinian culture. Anything that has any connection to Palestine is now banned. Just think for a moment how Nazi this is. This is full on top tier CCP shit.
Palestine is literally not allowed to exist in any shape or form. Not only the people but their entire culture is now wiped out. So that after israel is done wiping out all Palestinians from Gaza nobody will remember who they even were despite all the Palestinians in other countries around the world still living.
If it wasn’t, it would be a gravel lot.
I read this dumb " if israel wanted to destroy Gaza all the houses would be rubble" meme for the last time a few months ago.
Now that almost every home has been destroyed I didn’t expect someone to be stupid enough to bring it up again.
Its true that 70 percent or so has been destroyed but not all. You’ll just have to ask hamas to rebuild homes instead of tunnels. My point stands that if Israel wanted it flat it would be scrub and rocks.
Broooo it’s just 70% lmaooo Like just 2 in 3 houses has been destroyed!!! That’s not 3 out of 3!
You’re right tough, if israel just flattens all of Gaza and destroys all but 1 house then nobody could say that israel tried to destroy everything. Because there would be 1 house standing!
I wonder why I didn’t think of that before.
Yes. It could have been much worse, and I am still not exaggerating, it’s you, eternally moving goal posts. It’s a terrible situation that your propaganda source loves fanning
So I guess we’re not free to wear what we want now…
When you say now do you mean they lthat the rules they have for good reason still exist?
What is new beside a rule that’s been broken before getting broken again?
I think their point is that it’s not a flag or something, which would obviously be political, but just a scarf. So they mean “Oh wow we’re not allowed to wear scarves anymore?”. Which is still a bit silly, as the political intention seems pretty apparent in this specific case.
I mean the organizers were disappointed, if I remember correctly O’Brian did more than tell Winstin he was disappointed…
Second semifinals are today and I kinda hope there will be a riot going on in Malmö. Or at least make sure the EBU has to make more statements tomorrow
‘yahuvision
