The Eurovision Song Contest Was Traditionally a Lighthearted Spectacle – Yet It Has Become a Strategic Method to Sanitize Conflict.
An new term emerged a couple of months after the start of the military campaign against Gaza. Labeled WCNSF, it means “Injured child with no living relatives”. This term is found only in Gaza, as stated by doctors like paediatricians. Ordinarily, it is uncommon for physicians to attend to a minor who has lost their complete family. Yet, there has been no semblance of normality regarding the devastating conflict in Gaza, where complete genealogies have been eradicated and the number of young amputees exceeds that of any other place in the world. Nothing ordinary about scores of doctors arriving back from a landscape of rubble with reports of children being systematically aimed at.
A Living Nightmare Despite a Reported Truce
The Gaza Strip continues to be hell on earth. Essential medical supplies are failing to reach those in need, and major human rights organizations assert that genocidal acts are still being committed. The Israeli government disputes these allegations, consistent with how it denies all charges it is implicated in. Meanwhile, while young survivors are now freezing in makeshift tent camps, there is a little heartwarming news: apparently nothing is going to stop the Eurovision from advancing its declared purpose of “togetherness and artistic sharing.” The contest will continue to extend a welcoming platform for Israel, even though several European countries have now pulled out in protest. Because this, apparently, is what international harmony looks like.
The contest, notably excluded Russia from taking part in 2022 due to the “serious conflict in Ukraine”. But the crisis in Gaza seems treated differently.
A Double Standard
Overlook the circumstance that Israel was accused of unfair vote practices last year in what appears to have been an bid to politicise Eurovision. Set aside the news that a three-year-old girl was allegedly fatally struck in Gaza recently. Neglect the data that aggression from Israeli settlers and systematic expulsions in the West Bank have escalated. Forget the fact that global media are still blocked from unfettered access in Gaza. This entire context, evidently, should be allowed to get in the way of Eurovision’s much-touted ethos of unity.
The Show Goes On Against a Backdrop of Unimaginable Suffering
The contest reaches its seventieth anniversary next year – roughly two times the current lifespan of a person in Gaza today. The event will proceed, but it will likely never recapture the pure, unadulterated fun it once represented. A competition that initially championed togetherness has transformed into a cynical way to whitewash war.