- Written by Ferran Chatterjee
- bbc news
The European Broadcasting Union announced that Israel, represented by Noah Kirel in 2023, will take part in this year’s competition.
More than 1,400 Finnish music industry professionals have signed a petition calling for Israel to be banned from Eurovision over alleged “war crimes” in Gaza.
They are calling on public broadcaster Yell to withdraw Finland’s participation in the competition if Israel is not excluded from the competition.
Mr Eele said he was closely monitoring the position of the competition’s organizer, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU).
Last month, Icelandic musicians made a similar demand to broadcaster Luv.
Lukas Korpelainen, one of the petition’s authors, told newspaper Hafvstadsbladet that it was unacceptable for Israel to “participate in the Eurovision Song Contest to burnish its image.”
Signatories include Finnish artists Olavi Uusivirta, Paleface and Axel Enström, who represented Finland in the 2011 contest.
They said Mr. Ale was one of the first broadcasters to call for Russia’s ban from the 2022 contest, adding, “And we will continue to defend our values just as vigorously at Mr. Ale.” “I expect that,” he said, accusing Ale of double standards.
Biren said the situation in Israel and Gaza is “not exactly the same.”
“Although gruesome, this is not a war of aggression between states like Russia and Ukraine,” he told Finnish tabloid Irta Sanomat last month.
Jere Nurminen, communications director at Eel, told Hufvudstadsbladet that the company is monitoring the situation closely and is consulting with the EBU and other public broadcasters.
Eel also plans to meet with the petition’s authors.
In December, the EBU issued a statement saying Eurovision was “for broadcasters, not governments” and that Israel had participated for 50 years.
The newspaper said its affiliates agreed that Israel’s public broadcaster KAN was “complying with all competition rules” and insisted the contest was a “non-political event.”
Mr. Kang declined to comment when contacted by the BBC.
After it emerged that Mr. Alexander had endorsed a statement condemning Israel’s genocide, Israeli officials told Britain’s Telegraph newspaper that the argument was “ridiculous” and labeled the signatories “anti-genocide.” He accused him of being biased against Israel.
More than 23,350 people were killed in the Gaza Strip during Israeli military operations, the majority of them women and children, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Strip Health Ministry.
The war was sparked after an attack on southern Israel by armed groups affiliated with Hamas, which is classified as a terrorist organization by Israel, the United States, Britain and other Western governments. Approximately 1,300 people (mostly civilians) were killed and approximately 240 were taken hostage.
After launching retaliatory airstrikes on Gaza, Israel launched a ground operation aimed at “destroying Hamas’ military strength and governance capabilities” and freeing the hostages.
Since the war began, Israel has drastically reduced the amount of food, water, medicine and fuel brought into Gaza to put pressure on Hamas. The United Nations agency said 26% of Gazans (576,600 people) have exhausted their food supplies and coping capacity and are facing “catastrophic hunger and starvation.”
According to the United Nations Palestinian refugee agency Unrwa, 1.9 million Gazans (about 85% of the population) have been evacuated, of whom 1.4 million are sheltered in facilities.