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.
Yeah bro, they really just wanted to murder-suicide their mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, sons, and daughters Jonestown style. Trust me bro, they got what they deserved, bro.
It is disgusting to suggest they wished for the massacre of their people.
Do you think that Hamas are so inept that they didn’t know what was going to happen after Oct 7? No, they knew, and counted on it to get support and to wreck any goodwill Israel had with their neighbours and the world.
Don’t take me writing this as support for Israel. I hate their right wing fascist government as much as I hate the terrorists in Hamas.
There are no good guys in this, and both are fine with the killing of innocent civilians.
I’d say the scale of civilian death achieved through the deliberate targeting of civilians and civilian infrastructure is so extreme, it could not have been foreseen. It is a vastly disproportionate response.
This is just wrong. The western powers have unwaveringly supported Israel from the beginning. Only just recently has the US decided to perhaps reduce the weapon shipments to Israel, after vast destruction and loss of life has already occurred.
Agreed that it’s disproportionate. Somewhat conflicted on the “deliberate targeting” as I think it’s more of a “don’t care as long as we also hit something that might be Hamas”. Still certain that Hamas knew what would happen and already had a plan to use it for propaganda purposes.
Israel already have all the weapons they need to flatten Gaza completely. Hamas tactics are kind of working though. Although most western governments support Israel, this is causing internal issues (protests etc) in those countries, which weakens those governments, which will translate to less support for Israel. I suspect it won’t do much in the short term, except perhaps strengthen the resolve of the Israeli government, which will only translate into more suffering for the Palestinian people.
The only people who can stop this suffering is the Israeli and Palestinian people, which they were trying to do before all this kicked off, and likely one of the reasons why one of the most pro-Palestine kibbutzes (Be’eri?) was hit so hard. Both Hamas and the Israeli government gain from this conflict, sickening as it is.