It was hardly a surprise that Israel’s Eurovision contribution would result in protests of some kind. Despite its own rules, the 68-year-old international song contest has for decades been used as a platform to express political views and geopolitical divisions. But the war in Gaza – and Israel’s imminent threat to launch a full-scale ground invasion of Rafah – has made this year’s song contest more political than usual.
Before the world’s largest live music event began in the southern Swedish city of Malmö this week, Swedish police had geared up for a nearly unprecedented security operation. Hundreds of extra riot police have been deployed to the city, snipers have been placed on the roofs and drones can be seen hovering in the sky.
There were two reasons for the tightened security: Sweden raised its terror threat to level four of five last year after a spate of Quran-burning protests made it a “prioritised” target for Islamist terror attacks. And now Israel – whose war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip has claimed almost 35,000 Palestinian lives – is coming to town for Eurovision.
“The security situation is totally different now,” Ulf Nilsson, head of security for the city of Malmö, told Swedish daily “Dagens Nyheter” in February when asked about the extraordinary security measures and how they have changed from when the city last hosted the contest in 2013.
‘Anti-Israel atmosphere’
In the countdown to the May 7 opening of the contest, however – and amid Israel’s imminent threat to invade Gaza’s southern city of Rafah – it became clear that Israeli participation would be a preoccupation for police as several pro-Palestinian, and a few smaller pro-Israel protests, were announced.
Swedish media reported that some members of Malmö’s Jewish community had even decided to leave the city for fear of anti-Semitic violence.
“I’m simply not going to be in the city. And I’m going to make sure that my family is away too,” a Jewish woman requesting anonymity told Swedish Radio in the run-up to the competition. “There are people participating in those protests who hate me just because I’m Jewish,” said another.
Last week Israel raised its travel alert for Malmö for the duration of the competition from “potential threat” to “moderate threat”, recommending its citizens reconsider any planned trips to the city, citing the “anti-Israel atmosphere” there. The heightened tensions also prompted a pre-competition visit from Ronan Bar, the head of Israel’s internal security agence Shin Bet, to inspect the security measures put in place to protect Israeli singer and Eurovision contestant Eden Golan.
Pro-Palestinian scarf
It did not take long before the competition got political.
When the first of two semifinals got under way on Tuesday, Swedish singer Erik Saade was accused of making a political statement by wearing a Palestinian keffiyeh (a type of scarf) around his wrist in his opening act.
According to rules set out by Eurovision’s organiser, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), political symbols of any kind are not allowed in the competition.
Saade, whose father is Palestinian, dismissed the critique and said he only wore the scarf to pay tribute to his origins.
“The EBU seems to think that my ethnicity is controversial. That says more about them than it does about me," he said, accusing the EBU of racism.
Video message from Netanyahu
A ship carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza docked in Malmö on Wednesday to protest Israel’s participation and its war in Gaza.
"Sweden has not been able to prevent Israel's participation. We are here to show our support and to show that we are on the side of the Palestinians," Jeannette Escanilla, president of Ship to Gaza Sweden, told the AFP news agency.
As Golan prepared to take the stage in the second semifinal on Thursday, Israel’s Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu sent the singer a personal video message telling her that she had “already won” amid a “horrible wave of anti-Semitism”, referring to the boos she had endured during the dress rehearsals of her song “Hurricane”.
Although Golan’s performance was again accompanied by both boos and cheers, she went on to qualify for the finals.
Fake pro-Israel video
Thursday also marked the start of the first of two large pro-Palestinian “Stop Israel” protests that have been granted permits to demonstrate in Malmö on the sidelines of the competition.
According to authorities, between 10,000 and 12,000 people took part in the first rally. Despite a fake pro-Israel video circulating on social media claiming that the protest got out of hand and that “thousands of Hamas supporters” had tried to lynch Golan, police said the protest proceeded in a relatively calm manner.
“It proceeded smoothly, which is what we’d hoped for,” police spokesman Filip Annas told national news agency TT, noting just one minor incident.
“On one occasion we used pepper spray against some people who tried to force their way past the police cordons,” he said, adding that seven people had been arrested in all.
Music takes back seat
Just hours before the Eurovision grand finale is set to start on Saturday, the second “Stop Israel” protest will be held.
Meanwhile, Markus Larsson, a music journalist for Swedish tabloid “Aftonbladet”, commented that Israel’s contribution might actually be helped by the protests.
“For so many reasons, Israel can get massive viewer support in the final. Music no longer has anything to do with it. Once again, politics takes over.”
