Wrong on Eurovision
It is only right for Malta to boycott the next Eurovision Song Contest if Israel is allowed to participate, says Ranier Fsadni
The culture minister, Owen Bonnici, has come out against a boycott of the next Eurovision Song Contest if Israel is allowed to participate. He says the event is a sign of ‘dialogue’. Perhaps he should tell us what he realistically expects.
The Israeli MP, Moshe Sa’ada, is a member of Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party. He likes to declare, “It’s time to vanquish, annihilate, and exile the Gazans”. Does Bonnici believe the Eurovision lurve fest can sway Sa’ada?
He is not alone. The UN report that has found Israel guilty of genocide declares that the incitement goes right up to the top. In October 2023, the Israeli president and the then defence minister both called Palestinians “animals” and said none were innocent. Netanyahu invoked a biblical passage calling for Israel’s enemies, including children, to be wiped out.
Malta has just recognised Palestinian statehood. Netanyahu’s message to all the countries that did so (now, 80 per cent of all UN members) is this:
“It will not happen. A Palestinian state will not be established west of the Jordan River. Moreover, we have doubled Jewish settlement in Judea and Samaria – and we will continue on this path. The response to the recent attempt to impose a terror state in the heart of our land will be given after my return from the United States. Wait.”
Judea and Samaria are actually the West Bank, unrelated to Hamas, and legally a Palestinian territory. But Netanyahu is declaring his intention to annex it – he calls it “our land”.
How many editions of Eurovision will it take to change the mind of a man whose political career has been based on preventing the formation of a Palestinian state?
Meanwhile, the finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, promotes the Gaza Strip as a “real estate bonanza”. He claims there’s a business plan “on President Trump’s table”.
And here’s how he describes the war on Gaza and the mass displacement and starvation: “We’ve done the demolition phase... Now we need to build.”
Owen Bonnici cannot seriously believe that Eurovision ‘dialogue’ will put a stop to the children killed by drones and snipers
It’s talk like this that led the UN report to conclude that: “It is clear there is an intent to destroy the Palestinians in Gaza through acts that meet the criteria set forth in the Genocide Convention.”
The International Association of Genocide Scholars agrees. A resolution stating that Israel’s policies meet the UN’s legal definition of genocide was approved by 86 per cent of its members.
To meet the legal definition it is enough to be guilty of just one prohibited act. But the UN found Israel guilty on multiple grounds.
Bonnici cannot seriously believe that Eurovision ‘dialogue’ will put a stop to the children killed by drones and snipers (often with a single shot to the head or abdomen, showing professional intent). Or that it will end the murder of rescue workers thanks to the policy of ‘double-tap’ strikes (attacking the same area twice in a few minutes, so that those aiding the victims of the first attack are blown up too).
For two years, every attempt at mediation has been rebuffed. Pressure behind closed doors was scorned. As the International Crisis Group (ICG) has shown, ceasefire talks have been a pawn in the game to buy time to raze Gaza to the ground and cleanse it of Palestinians.
Even raising concern about Israel’s conduct is portrayed as ‘anti-Semitism’ – because, apparently, if you haven’t raised concern about every other hellhole on earth, your concern about Gaza must be only a pretext to criticise Israel.
Well, the ICG does voice concern about every atrocity around the world. And, on Gaza, it is urging European states to go beyond recognising Palestinian statehood.
The ICG urges Europeans to use all their powers to ostracise Israel – something they’d have done long ago to any other country guilty of Israel’s crimes.
It urges the EU to consider suspending Israel’s preferential trade terms (given the human rights violations of the Association Agreement); halting visa-free travel for Israeli officials who violated human rights; sanctions against top politicians and military officers directing the siege of Gaza; and prosecution of anyone who may have committed war crimes while serving in the Israeli army.
Alas, the EU is nowhere near taking any of these steps. We’ve had lots of calls for action. But vetoes and insufficient votes have blocked sanctions.
The ICG is urging European action even though it does not believe that economic pressure or boycotts will sway Netanyahu. But it does believe that ostracisation matters for Israel’s long-term calculations; no country wants the erosion of important relationships.
But for this to happen, Europe needs to move from condemnation to sanctions.
Of course, if we put up excuses to take even the simplest and most painless of steps – to withdraw from one edition of Eurovision if Israel participates – Israel will have no reason to think that our condemnation is anything but performative, a Eurovision act in its own right.
It takes two to dialogue. If one side is completely uninterested, the only way remaining to send a message is through action.
And, by the way, refusing to participate in Eurovision is a cultural act in itself – a line in the sand that shows what your values are and what behaviour you find unacceptable.