Today's YouTube commentary is about Ireland's dramatic announcement that it will withdraw from Eurovision 2026 unless Israel is at long last banned from the contest. I can also tell you that our resident fan of "GOD IS LOVE" in big wooden letters is in for a real treat in this video.
We've had several withdrawals for political reasons in the past. The contest went on without the withdrawing countries.
ReplyDeleteThere will be a tipping point. A few missing will make no difference so it needs a fair chunk of nations to threaten to withdraw. Eurovision has a history of corruption, vote rigging and factionalism. It'll be difficult for any protest to gain traction..
Delete"We've had several withdrawals for political reasons in the past."
DeleteWe've also had countries expelled in the past for 'political reasons' (such as war crimes) and that's the relevant precedent here.
I don't know if anyone is following the Spanish Vuelta (cycle race). Since the beginning there have been protests against the Israeli-backed team all along the routes. They have disrupted the race on two or three occasions and there is now talk of removing the team from the race. Strangely, the Spanish police, now known for their gentle ways, have not really interefered with the protests and have done nothing about the thousands of Palestinian flags displayed along the routes. It may, of course, be because the race is broadcast worldwide and they may be holding back because of that.
ReplyDeleteI wonder how long it will be before more organisations start to take notice of the views of their followers.
I have to say I don’t like the Eurovision contest as it is just pap. Still some do. But Israeli isn’t in Europe and neither is Australia for that matter and neither should be in programme.
ReplyDeleteObviously the Australia thing is a complete nonsense, but it's not just Eurovision that stretches the definition and treats Israel as if it's a European country - most sporting organisations do the same. Israel is of course very close to Cyprus, and I was interested to see the other day that Wikipedia defines Cyprus in a strictly geographical sense as an exclusively Asian country - yet none of us have a second thought about regarding Cyprus as European for cultural, historical and political reasons. It's a member state of both the EU and the Council of Europe. Sometimes cultural orientation does trump geography - but it doesn't and mustn't trump genocide.
DeleteThis comes up every year but Eurovision is a tv show, not a political entity, and Australia and Israel contribute to its funding. That's why they are allowed to enter, nothing to do with geographical location
DeleteThat's not accurate. Leaving aside Australia, for which a special exception has been made, participation is limited to members of the European Broadcasting Union, which for some reason has a broader geographical scope than the traditional borders of Europe. It encompasses North Africa and parts of the Middle East - hence why Morocco once took part, and Lebanon almost did.
DeleteDutch national broadcaster, Avrotros has joined RTÉ.
ReplyDeleteThe geographical location of Israel should have nothing to do with the murderous state of Israel being banned from participation. Until it is, any nation that opposes genocide should withdraw their participation. A minor sacrifice.
ReplyDeleteI personally think Israel should not be allowed to participate in the Eurovision song contest. Israel is not part of Europe. Neither of course is Australia,.
ReplyDeleteThat said the slaughter in Gaza is unacceptable. No one of any sane mind can condone what Israel does and for that reason there are grounds to say that they maybe should not compete.
But I say that recognising that other states have been banned from competitions such as apartheid South Africa back in the day when Britain allowed Zola Bud to run under a flag of convenience in the Olympics. And of course Russia is banned from Olympic participation.
Then, and then maybe to add to the discussion, Britain is not technically in Europe but a small island off the coast of Europe and not in the EU. But that aside, there is so much justified outrage at what Israel does, but what about Britain. It provides military equipment, provides munitions, deploys the RAF to fly surveillance flights over Gaza, provides Israel targeting information, satellite coordinates and intelligence monitoring to Israel. Great Britain is art and part of the slaughter. So why no call to ban Britain.
Or would people calling to ban Britain be classed as terorists, arrested and detained,
So, should Israel be banned. I don't know. Participation, engagement and especially during conflict can be a very good thing. Jaw jaw as opposed to War war, is the famous misquote, but the Eurovision Song Contest could be a platform for communication.
So don't know James. Better to talk, to mingle, to interface, to promote a message of disagreement through these mediums as opposed to a simple ban, which may or may not become a reality that achieves little.
Eurovision has indeed been a powerful platform for communication on the Israel issue. By using technology to replace boos with cheers, the EBU have very effectively disseminated the propaganda message that Israel is wildly popular with the European public and that nobody gives a toss about genocide.
DeleteAs with Nazi propaganda films, the world would be better off without that particular platform for propaganda communication.
It’s worse than that because if Israel aren’t chucked out they have a very high chance of winning the comp, as they very nearly did last time out.
ReplyDeleteYou can’t vote against a country in Eurovision, only for an entry. Isreal has hyper-committed supporters across Europe that are reliable voters for the country’s entry, regardless of artistic merit. It’s a huge voter turnout operation, well organised and highly motivated.
Better for them to participate and for countries that object to make live political comment during the telecast of the competition.
ReplyDeletePersonally; I believe bans are not effective, do not work. Jaw jaw, engagement; exemplar comment and engagement is much more effective.
"for countries that object to make live political comment during the telecast of the competition"
DeleteBut they can't. That's strictly against the rules. Spain were sanctioned for doing exactly that last year.
So what's your Plan B?
I wouldn't vote for Israel even if they had Charlotte Church singing Buy Me A Bubblecar, Imelda.
ReplyDeleteWould be funny if the contest ended up being just Israel vs Germany. Not sure that would exactly have the connotations that the Germans were going for
ReplyDelete37 countries are scheduled to compete. If that went down to 30 it wouldn't change the spectacle much. They could pad it out with more back stories etc. 20-25 is the critical mass. They wouldn't have a credible competition with less than that and the programme would be considerably shorter.
ReplyDelete"If that went down to 30 it wouldn't change the spectacle much."
DeleteIt's more complicated than that, though, because there are two semi-finals. They'd probably scrap the Tuesday semi-final and just have the one on the Thursday (which used to be the system for a few years).