In a recent musical promotion video for the Eurovision, the Israeli Public Broadcaster Kan has applied cringeworthy vulgarity, drawing upon anti-Semitic tropes, misogyny and various forms of racism and ultra-nationalism, clearly making the Eurovision political, for those who believed it wasn’t.
“Now I’m done, I’m coming home.” In an odd twist, the lyrics of the song that will represent Israel at the 2019 Eurovision competition provides the perfect summary of what protesters in Gaza have been communicating through the Great March of Return.
Israeli artists join Palestinians in calling for contestants in the Eurovision Song Contest to boycott: “We, as Jewish Israelis who yearn to live in a peaceful, democratic society, recognize that there is no way to achieve that without ending our government’s oppression of millions of Palestinians.”
A Dutch song focusing on Israel’s human rights violations parodies “Toy,” the song by Israeli Netta Barzilai that won the 2018 Eurovision contest. The parody says that Israel is in it for the money; and the Israeli ambassador to the Netherlands has said that it crosses a line, in anti-semitic stereotype.