The fact that Israel can even imagine that it would participate in a singing competition, with all its sequins and special effects, at the height of the genocide in the Gaza Strip, while its soldiers are killing and destroying without mercy, shows that it has lost its way. It should have understood on its own that it has no place in any international celebration right now.
Had it bowed its head in shame and removed itself from the Eurovision Song Contest, it would have retained far more honor than it has by hurling accusations of antisemitism at the entire world, as if the world were the one committing massacres in Gaza rather than the Israel Defense Forces.
Eurovision is a song competition for European public broadcasters. Israel entered it, as it has other European events in the fields of science, sports and culture, thanks to Europe's special treatment of it. It's a week of pleasure and songs, as well as quite a bit of nationalism, for fans of the genre. The contest is considered apolitical, but in 2022 the European Broadcasting Union excluded Russia due to its invasion of Ukraine.
Russia's ouster was considered self-evident. Nobody whined about "hatred of Russians." Who wants to do a Cossack dance alongside young people whose friends are shelling homes in Kyiv? So Russia is out of Eurovision, as it should be. Its ban was a moral decision, not a political move. And Israel raised no outcry over it.
Israel's invasion of Gaza is far crueler and more genocidal than Russia's invasion of Ukraine, though that invasion was also cruel and criminal. If we measure them, for instance, by the number of children slain – a measure that reflects barbarism – then 659 children have been killed in Ukraine during three and a half years of war, while in Gaza more than 18,000 children have been killed in roughly two years.
Is there even a question as to whether a country whose soldiers are killing so many children is entitled to participate in an international festival? What are Israelis talking about when they talk about antisemitism in this context? Only philosemitism and love of Israel kept the country in the contest this year. It shouldn't have been there even then.
Israelis are pretending to be offended. Our idiotic media is telling them that everyone hates us because of the Muslims in Europe. That's easier for Israelis to swallow, but it's obviously a complete lie. Europe hates us because of the children Israel has killed in Gaza, not because of Muslim immigrants. No person of conscience in the world who has seen the atrocity pictures from Gaza could fail to loathe the people perpetrating these atrocities.
Unlike Israelis, whose media blinds them by protecting them from these pictures, the world sees and can no longer remain silent. That's not just the world's right, but its obligation. It could perhaps have gone easy on the Russians because they live in a dictatorship, but there are no discounts for countries that claim to be democracies.
Israel's government represents its people, and the war in Gaza is acceptable to most Israelis. The fact is that the vast majority of Israelis have participated in it, whether gladly or merely in blind obedience, and most Israelis don't truly care about the genocide, only about getting the hostages back. Were it not for the hostages, there would be no demonstrations here of the kind that are actually happening.
We deserve an unbearable punishment, and even more so since the stage of utter madness in Gaza City began. This is neither hatred of Israel nor masochism; it's merely what a sense of justice looks like. With this blood on its hands, Israel shouldn't even try to gain admission to any club that would accept criminals like it as members. And to dance at the Stadthalle in Vienna in May on the blood of destroyed, ethnically cleansed Gaza? It's a badge of shame for Europe that only five countries have so far opposed Israel's participation. It doesn't deserve to be there.