Noa Kirel landed in Netavg/Niv Aharonson
The European Broadcasting Union, the EBU, firmly stands by Israel and makes it clear again and again - there is no reason to expel the country from the competition.
"This is not a competition between governments and the Eurovision Song Contest is not a political event," they say, stressing that the broadcasting body in Israel, the Public Broadcasting Corporation here, complies with all union and competition rules.
The fans in Israel can breathe easy, for now.
Despite this, it seems that the EBU's statements do not satisfy some of the artists participating in the local Eurovision previews.
The loudest of all is Iceland, which announced last week that it will decide whether to participate in Eurovision 2024 or withdraw from it "in consultation with the winner of the pre-Eurovision".
Immediately after the announcement, in a defiant move that seemed to be well planned, it was announced that the Palestinian singer Bashar Murad, a resident of East Jerusalem, would compete in the competition.
The result: Iceland jumps in the bets and is now ranked in first place, when before the publication it was ranked only in 20th place, which represents its tendency to send songs that the ear finds it difficult to tolerate.
Represent Iceland?
Bashar Murad/screenshot, YouTube
When the betting opened, Israel was ranked first, but slowly dropped and as of the time of writing these lines we are ranked sixth.
Let's emphasize that the bets at this stage, when only six songs have been chosen and there are 31 more songs in the pipeline, the bets have no real meaning, but they can allude to how in European eyes the events of October 7 are already distant history, and now the Gazan narrative is dominant.
But what will happen if Iceland withdraws?
Will we be satisfied with sentences like "come on, who needs them anyway" that are written in talkbacks under every article on the subject and even said by morning show presenters, or might the EBU turn its back on its friends and ostracize Israel?
On the one hand, unlike Israel, Iceland is a Eurovision sick country, where it is a real obsession, almost like their obsession with the conflict here.
A look at data from Iceland's ranking committee shows that 98.7% of all TV receivers that were open on May 13, 2023, were tuned to Eurovision, and that's the year Iceland didn't make it to the finals of the contest at all.
On the other hand, it is a country with only about 370 thousand inhabitants compared to Israel which is approaching 10 million.
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The band Hatari that represented Iceland at Eurovision 2019 in Tel Aviv is waving the flag of Palestine/screenshot, screenshot
Size does matter
And this is why we are comparing sizes here.
Let's take the word of the year "misconception" and throw it at Eurovision: the misconception is that it is a competition whose main purpose is to present to the world music, cultures, shows, and an evening of pleasure.
so no.
Eurovision is first and foremost about money.
That's why every year there are five countries - Italy, Great Britain, Germany, Spain and France - that go straight to the finals, because without their funding this institution could collapse.
It almost happened in 1996, when alongside Galit Bell, Germany also did not pass the preliminary round and did not participate in Eurovision.
Therefore, televoting, the public vote, also costs money.
Did you think that last year the EBU just decided to include the "rest of the world" votes as another "country"?
No no, this is more money flowing into the union coffers.
Israel is worth more money than Iceland.
Its participation fees are higher and there is a larger pool of potential voters, so if Iceland decides to withdraw from the competition, it is likely (just likely, nothing is certain these days) that Israel can rest easy.
When should you start stressing?
If more countries join and say "if Israel is in - we are out".
The immediate suspects in trying to stick sticks in our wheels are Ireland, Finland and Norway.
During the first semi-final that took place in Norway about three weeks ago, one of the spectators in the audience burst onto the stage wrapped in a Palestinian flag and wearing a shirt with the inscription "Boycott Israel".
The Irish preliminary that took place on Friday passed without special calls.
We are now headed to Finland, which will hold its preliminaries on February 10, when two of the seven participants have already announced that they will not travel to Malmö if Israel participates.
In addition, 1,400 people from the local music industry called on the Finnish Broadcasting Corporation not to share the stage with Israel.
Protest against Israel in the front of Norway/screenshot, Twitter
Here we are already entering the "what if", but if Iceland and two other countries among the three we mentioned decide to withdraw, here we will have to see if the EBU will insist that the broadcasting corporation here does not violate the competition rules and therefore can participate, or the money will win.
So we will have to see if there is any friendship hidden between the five big countries.
We probably can't trust Britain and Spain, but then the corporation people should talk to their friends in Germany, and maybe even in France and Italy.
From the beginning of the conflict, Germany has clearly stood by Israel.
If Germany makes its participation conditional on Israel not being kicked out of the competition, its money is worth more than the Nordic money.
How did we even get to a situation where they want to impeach us?
The seeds were sown in February 2022, when an earthquake occurred in the Eurovision world, when Russia was kicked out of the competition due to its invasion of Ukraine.
In a friendly conversation I had at the time with Alon Amir, who wrote two books about Eurovision and participated in numerous delegations, he told me the following sentence: "People don't understand that this is very dangerous for Israel."
For you, the Israeli readers, I really don't need to list the many differences between the Russia-Ukraine war and Israel-Gaza, you understand on your own.
But those purple-haired queers for Palestine in Iceland do not understand that it is impossible to pass in silence over thousands of rockets in one day, kidnapping of more than 200 Israelis from their homes, rape and mass murder.
Noa Kirel at last year's Eurovision/screenshot, EBU, here 11
One country we already know will not boycott Eurovision because of Israel and that is Luxembourg.
It seems that the history of the two countries in the competition is intertwined: Israel participated for the first time in the 1973 Eurovision held in Luxembourg, which also won the competition for the second time in a row, this time with Anne Marie David.
David returned to the 1979 Eurovision Song Contest held in Jerusalem, when she finished in third place with Israel winning for the second time in a row.
On Saturday night, Luxembourg held a pre-Eurovision in preparation for its return to the competition for the first time since 1993, when the production, which received much praise from Eurovision fans around the world, was almost entirely Israeli, even the winner comes from Israel.
Israeli Eurovision fans never have it easy.
Almost every year when they are on their way to the host hall, they are greeted by a pro-Palestinian demonstration, sometimes polite as it was last year in Liverpool and sometimes tense as it was in 2021 in Rotterdam, but it seems that nothing will be similar to what will await them in Malmö, they already understand this from The screeching "ban Israel" comments on every post that appears on the competition's social networks.
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