Feb 1, 2024. Posted by Balkan Periscope - Hellas
In
parliament, Spain's far-left Podemos party on Thursday officially urged the
government to take a clear stand against Israel's participation in the
Eurovision Song Contest.
"Israel should be barred from any international activity as a pressure tactic to halt the genocide against the Palestinian people," Podemos leader posted Ione Belarra on X. "All countries should call for its exclusion from Eurovision."
The
non-legislative proposal will be debated and voted on in parliament. If passed,
the government would commit to trying to convince other EU countries to block
Israel from the song competition.
The
government would also urge the country's public broadcaster RTVE to defend the
exclusion of Israel, just like it did with Russia in 2022.
In Podemos'
proposal, the group argues that Eurovision's values of "universality,
diversity, equality and inclusion" are "incompatible with the
participation of Israel," which is abusing human rights and international
law in the West Bank and Gaza.
"In
that sense," argues Podemos, "it is worrying that a showcase like
Eurovision could whitewash the Zionist state of Israel in the eyes of millions
of viewers. Especially when, in 2022, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU)
decided to expel Russia from the contest after the invasion of Ukraine."
These are
not the first calls to exclude Israel from Eurovision.
"This
is a massacre, a genocide," said Ines Hernand, one of the presenters for
the Spanish song competition to choose the Eurovision contestant, at a press
conference this week. "That Israel is participating when Russia was vetoed
… hints at another set of issues that has to do with money."
Earlier
this week, more than 1,000 musical artists from host country Sweden also signed
an open letter calling for an Israel ban over its "brutal warfare in
Gaza."
A similar
letter was previously signed by around 1,400 artists from Finland and Iceland.
Iceland's
national broadcaster has said the decision to boycott the event if Israel
continues will be up to the candidate it chooses to participate in the
competition.
In response
to these calls, the EBU said that Israel would not be excluded from the
contest, saying it wants to maintain the competition's status as "an
apolitical event that unites audiences around the world through music."
Eurovision
is set to be held in Malmo, Sweden on May 7-11.
As of 2023,
Israel had competed in the song contest 44 times, winning four times — in 1978,
1979, 1998 and 2018.
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