🎤 Mic Check – the Shadow of the Holy Land – Pipeaway Newsletter #165

Hi from Basel!

Thanks to last year’s Nemo‘s victory in Malmö, in just two weeks, the Swiss town of Basel will become a Eurovision stage, an epicenter of the most groundbreaking music competition in TV history.

While nominally apolitical, the Eurovision Song Contest continues to provoke a crucial political question: Is it ethical to provide a microphone to a country actively engaging in ethnic cleansing?

Slovenian (RTV SLO) and Spanish (RTVE) public broadcasters were joined by the Icelandic EBU representative RÚV last week, in asking a quite relevant question: Why is Israel in Eurovision?

“Events like Eurovision are meant to remind the world of what it can look like at its best. It’s about what connects us – not what divides us”, the ESC’s director, Martin Green, said in an interview with the Euroverse Mysteries podcast.

While, in the past, it wasn’t unusual for Eurovision to question hidden song messages and attempts to instrumentalize its stage for countries’ (prop)agendas, Yuval Raphael, the survivor of the October 7 Hamas attacks, managed to pass under the ESC’s political radars, claiming her song “New Day Will Rise” is all about “hope and love”. Very similarly, last year’s Eden Golan‘s controversial “Hurricane” (ex “October Rain”) was about a young woman going through a “personal crisis”.

But in an interview with Israel Hayom, Yuval Raphael didn’t leave much room for romantic interpretations: “I know some people won’t want me there. But that’s exactly why I have to go. I want to stand on that stage, wrapped in the Israeli flag, and make sure the world hears our story.”

We have also heard that other massacre survivors will join Yuval’s “our story” in Basel (surely fueled only by their love for music festivals), while heavily booed Eden Golan was confirmed to read out Israel’s votes in the final.

How will Basel welcome Israel’s music project that screams politics par excellence? One shouldn’t rely on Switzerland’s nominal political neutrality to align with EBU sweeping issues under the rug. For example, the other day, Swiss fencers turned their backs on the Israeli team during the medal ceremony, protesting the Gaza genocide.

Not everyone is afraid of easily disseminated “antisemitic” labels against those who question that the “chosen people” can never commit a mistake (which is a rather polite way to call the catastrophe in Palestine). Tragedies that we went through in history don’t secure impunity for inflicting pain on others. The world is not divided into sinners and saints.

Just look at last week’s newsletter on photography that crosses the ethical line. The death of the Pope showed that, after all, you don’t need to be Chinese to practice cultural insensitivity when photographing religious rituals. Disturbingly, Catholics arriving at the Vatican to pay respects did just the opposite – by taking inappropriate selfies with the Pope’s corpse, as if it were a tourist attraction.

Nota bene, even in his final hours, Pope Francis, who was also accused of antisemitism by Israeli officials, continued delivering clear messages on the Gaza Strip, believing in the power of speaking up.

Basel streets could hear more than just cheering to the tune of music. Swiss broadcaster has already confirmed it would allow Palestinian flags in the audience, even if the EBU still bans them on stage.

We will see how all of that will develop. I’ll certainly be there to report on it.

What’s your say on the Eurovision Israel boycott?

Have a speak-up week!

Ivan Kralj        
Pipeaway.com

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Ivan Kralj

Editor

Award-winning journalist and editor from Croatia