Simply hours earlier than this yr’s Eurovision Music Contest remaining was set to start on Saturday in Malmo, Sweden, round 5,000 pro-Palestinian demonstrators marched by way of the town heart to protest Israel’s participation within the competitors.
Waving big Palestinian flags and accompanied by drummers, the protesters shouted slogans together with, “Eurovision, you possibly can’t cover, you’re supporting genocide,” and “Free, free Palestine.”
The demonstration, two days after an identical march in Malmo that the Swedish police mentioned concerned round 12,000 folks, was the newest signal of some Eurovision followers’ discontent with Israel’s involvement within the high-profile contest due to the conflict in Gaza.
At Eurovision, singers representing their nations compete for votes from music-industry juries and a tv viewers. Though not a part of Europe, Israel has competed since 1973 and gained 4 occasions.
For months, pro-Palestinian teams have known as on Eurovision’s organizer, the European Broadcasting Union, to ban Israel from the competitors. 1000’s of musicians, together with pop stars and former Eurovision entrants, signed petitions that mentioned there was a precedent for throwing Israel out of the occasion: In 2022, Eurovision banned Russia following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The European Broadcasting Union has repeatedly dismissed the comparability and mentioned Eurovision is an apolitical contest that goals to unite music followers, not divide them.
At Saturday’s protest, Loay Mogari, 39, a musician sporting a hoodie within the colours of the Palestinian flag, mentioned that the Israeli authorities “had been murderers.” He needed individuals in Saturday’s remaining to make pro-Palestinian statements from the stage “and say the reality about Palestine,” he mentioned.
As compared with the pro-Palestinian scholar protests at occupied school campuses in america, at which the police have made many arrests, the Malmo demonstrations had been peaceable, with few law enforcement officials seen alongside the marchers and little disruption downtown.
There have been no arrests at Saturday’s march, a police spokesman mentioned in an electronic mail.
Ulf Bjereld, an skilled in Swedish-Center East relations on the College of Gothenburg, mentioned in a phone interview that many Swedes empathized with the protesters. There was “very sturdy discontent” in Swedish society towards Israel’s actions in Gaza, Bjereld mentioned.
Since Israel invaded Gaza after the Oct. 7 Hamas-led assaults by which Israel estimates about 1,200 folks died, there was an increase in antisemitic hate crimes in Sweden, based on knowledge from Sweden’s Nationwide Council for Crime Prevention. There have been 110 incidents between October and December 2023, the group mentioned in a latest report, up from 24 throughout the identical interval within the earlier yr.
Malmo is a metropolis of about 360,000 folks, a 3rd of whom had been born exterior Sweden, together with many from the Center East. Over the previous 5 months, pro-Palestinian protests have occurred recurrently there and in different Swedish cities.
On Saturday, the marches included members of Jewish Uproar, a small group of Jewish activists protesting Israel’s actions in Gaza. Elias Rose Gordon, 23, a member sporting a skullcap within the colours of the Palestinian flag, mentioned that Eurovision was “hypocritical” for permitting Israel into the competition when it had banned Russia.
Professional-Palestinian shows weren’t restricted to downtown Malmo on Saturday. Throughout a rehearsal for the Eurovision remaining, attendees on the ground of the Malmo Enviornment waved two Palestinian flags, based on Steve Baileys, 60, a British Eurovision fan who attended the occasion. Safety rapidly eliminated the merchandise, Baileys added. (Eurovision didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark, however has mentioned that attendees will not be allowed to wave Palestinian flags or banners with slogans concerning the conflict between Israel and Hamas.)
Slimane, who’s representing France, stopped singing through the rehearsal to name for peace. “Sorry I don’t communicate English very nicely,” he mentioned: “Each artist right here need to sing about love and sing about peace.”