Avris

Last night we were inches away from the Eurovision Song Contest dying a tragic death… I was privileged to be able to fulfil my long time dream and be in the live audience for this amazing event that unites dozen of countries on a continent that used to be torn by constant wars. It was an extraordinary experience, by far the best couple of shows I've ever attended. And yet, coming back home from it felt like the whole crowd has just been punch in a gut. After all I've seen, I don't believe for a second that the apparent support for Israel was genuine and organic. They've used one of our favourite things in the world as a propaganda tool for genocide, and I'm fucking disgusted.

Israel shouldn't be allowed to participate in the first place

First of all, let's state the (hopefully) obvious:

Eurovision was founded on values of peace. A country actively making war, bombing schools and hospitals and killing millions of innocents has no place in this contest. FREE PALESTINE AND #BanIsraelFromEurovision

— @itsjustagame.bsky.social

When your country is run by a wanted war criminal and has ethnic cleansing as its official policy, I won't hesitate treating your flag same way I would a flag of Third Reich, and to call people who proudly display it nazis.

Despite Israel being, controversially, allowed to compete in the ESC while actively committing genocide, many eurofans still wanted to enjoy the show. The contest has never been perfect, but for many of us it was still a highlight of every year. They would protest Israel's participation while supporting all other contestants on the biggest and queerest tv stage in the world.

My experience in Basel

This is the first time I attended ESC in person. I got to watch both semifinals and the great final during evening previews, as well as the live finale show at a viewing party at Arena+. This is my, admittedly biased, experience of what happened inside the arena – but I hope it will shed some light on the events.

Now, to be fair, I can't be sure if Israel's performance wasn't jaw-droppingly good – because I've never seen it. The song itself is IMO very meh – but the first time I heard it was during the evening previews, and I haven't seen the staging, because I joined a handful of people (sadly just a handful), who turned their backs away in protest. It's telling, however, that national juries – professional musicians who sign off on their votes with their names and reputation – has put it the nazi entry in the bottom half of the competition.

I also don't have any direct evidence of anyone tampering with the televoting, how could I? But here's why I'm convinced that no, the audiences across Europe didn't actually think that Israel's song deserved the first place:

Any enthusiasm for Israel in the live audience and in the Arena+ watching party felt forced and disgustingly cringe. Every single other performer would get an ovation from the crowd – sometimes bigger, sometimes smaller, of course, but people were always happy to see the artist on stage. When Israel's name appeared on the screens, though? It went silent for a few seconds, until a bunch of people started cheering as loud as they could, and then lots of others felt peer-pressured to join. It happened a few times – Israel coming up, then dead silence, and only then some cheers.

Other fans would cheer and wave to their idols on stage, like one does to artists, but people with Israeli flags looked like they were comforting Yuval in a great hardship. Other people would, obviously, wave the flags of their favourite countries during their performance, but generally wouldn't bother with that during all the recaps – except for Israel, whose fans never missed a chance.

When the final votes were about to be announced, when it was only between Austria and Israel, the crowd of 36 thousand people at the Arena+ started shouting repeatedly “Austria! Austria! Austria!”. It was so powerful and emotional… And then, the second Austria's victory was announced, the whole crowd erupted in the loudest and most relieved cheer I've ever heard in my entire life. At the very same second, a whole bunch of nazi supporters immediately rage-quit the stadium. You know, how every genuine eurofan does when their favourite song wins a disappointing, but still super prestigious, second place… You know, how no other audience had reacted ever, AFAIK.

The atmosphere on the way back from the grand final was unlike any other Eurovision-adjacent event I ever attended – rather than partying and singing in public transport, people seemed defeated. Relieved, but not happy.

People are not happy with whatever the hell just happened.

And the EBU knows all of that too. They've been in the room when all of that happened, they saw all the protests happening, they've faced harsh criticism. But perhaps most tangibly: they've changed the format of Martin Österdahl giving his thumbs up to the validity of the results – from a fucking puff piece to him personally, to just briefly showing him on the screen literally giving thumbs up without uttering a single word. After last year's boos that their fucking tech couldn't even manage to censor out, they knew he wouldn't be well-received this time either, and for good reasons.

You know who else knows perfectly well that Europe and eurofans don't like their genocidal country? The Israeli fans themselves. They looked constantly agitated, nervously looking around, expecting problems every step of the way.

Legitimacy of the votes

I managed to vote twice last night. I even managed to vote for my own country. All I needed was a bank account in Germany, where I used to live, et voilà! With my current bank, bunq, I can open a large number of virtual credit cards from a whole bunch of European countries, with just a few clicks – and I could probably automate it via an API as well.

So if I could slightly abuse the system – just to see, if it will work – can you image what someone with more resources and political will could do? Here's a meme I found on r/YUROP that illustrates one scenario:

If that's what some random highly motivated fans can conceivably and realistically do, can you imagine what a nation state with massive resources could pull off?

Both last year and this year they had bought expensive Times Square ads targeting US-ians, who aren't really known for even watching ESC. Their song was mid at best. From the live audience they got a lukewarm reception at best. Their image internationally is, let's say, far from neutral. It's hard to believe that they would have won the televote, and by such a margin.

How much does it cost them to bomb Palestinian children every day? And how much does a million votes cost? Is it possible to manipulate them? And most importantly, would Israel benefit from the world thinking that they're so beloved by regular people watching a music competition?

Where do we go from here?

I don't know… An obvious answer is boycott – but actual fans leaving the competition and not voting for other countries anymore only makes is easier for nazis to hijack the vote, doesn't it?

And sadly, I don't think individual boycotts on a scale similar to what's happening already are ever gonna be effective. If like half of us stopped watching ESC, the EBU would notice – but let's be honest, that ain't gonna happen. If a bunch of EBU members pulled out of the competition in protest, maybe something would change. But is that likely to happen?

I'm feeling so powerless against the big boy decisions made in conference rooms behind closed doors. I don't feel like anything I do could actually change things for the better – and boycotting the ESC would just be shooting myself in the foot without accomplishing anything.

But yesterday it stopped being about the effectiveness of boycotts – instead I started asking myself: will I even keep enjoying Eurovision anymore?

I love so many things about this competition, it hurts to see it so out of control of the actual fans. No amount of protests, boycotts, demands, booing or angry tweets makes EBU consider banning Israel – even though they could easily do it, just as they did with Russia and Belarus, and for the same reason.

At which point does this most delicious cake become so poisoned that it's no longer tempting to take a bite? Back when Israel was just one of dozens of competing countries, their outrageous participation might have been just one of many aspects of the show. But if you expect me to believe that the audience in Muslim-majority Azerbaijan gave Israel 12 points, and still enjoy the show and think that my vote or opinion even matters anymore – why the fuck would I even bother anymore?

As much as people might want to claim otherwise, Eurovision is a deeply political event, with an explicit political goal of promoting peace through music. Right now it fails at that goal disastrously. EBU hands a pinkwashed propaganda tool to a genocidal state. It's disgusting. Their names and faces will end up the same pages of history books as Goebbels.

Fuck Israel. Fuck EBU. Fuck Österdahl.

Free Palestine