The Eurovision Song Contest Was Once a Lighthearted Spectacle – However It Has Become a Strategic Method to Whitewash War.
A recent acronym came to light a couple of months after the start of the military campaign against Gaza. Referred to as WCNSF, it signifies “Wounded child, no surviving family”. This term is found only in Gaza, according to health professionals including paediatricians. Typically, it is uncommon for medical staff to care for a young patient who has lost their whole family. However, there has been absolutely nothing ordinary about the genocide in Gaza, where entire family lineages have been wiped out and the number of young amputees exceeds that of any other place in the world. No sense of normalcy about many doctors returning from a landscape of rubble with reports of children being intentionally shot at.
A Hell on Earth Regardless of a Reported Truce
Conditions in Gaza persist as hell on earth. Essential medical supplies are failing to reach those in need, and groups like Amnesty International contend that atrocities are continuing. Officials disputes these allegations, just as it denies all charges it is charged with. But while traumatised orphans are now suffering from the cold in improvised encampments, there is some ostensibly positive news: apparently nothing is going to stop the Eurovision song contest from advancing its declared purpose of “unity and cultural exchange.” Eurovision will continue to offer a welcoming platform for Israel, although a number of European countries have now withdrawn in objection. Because this, it seems, is what unity looks like.
The contest, notably excluded Russia from participating in 2022 due to the “grave situation in Ukraine”. But the crisis in Gaza seems completely different.
A Double Standard
Forget the fact that Israel was criticized for questionable voting tactics last year in what could be seen as an attempt to inject politics into Eurovision. Set aside the news that a toddler was allegedly fatally struck in Gaza just days ago. Forget the fact that aggression from Israeli settlers and systematic expulsions in the West Bank have increased dramatically. Forget the fact that foreign reporters are still prevented from independent reporting in Gaza. All of this, apparently, should be seen as a barrier of Eurovision’s self-proclaimed spirit of unity.
The Pageant Proceeds Against a Backdrop of Staggering Tragedy
The contest reaches its seventieth anniversary next year – roughly two times the projected longevity of a person in Gaza at present. The event will proceed, but it will never be able to restore the whimsical pleasure it historically embodied. A competition that was originally built on togetherness has transformed into a blatant mechanism to whitewash war.