The Eurovision Song Contest has always prided itself on being apolitical, it's raison d'être was to unite Europe after World War 2 and which led to some very convoluted verbal somersaults to explain the Russian ban, Österdahl saying that the decision was not political but was reflecting the sentiment of Europe and standing up for democracy because the Eurovision shows the values of solidarity, reaching out and uniting through music.
Maybe something was lost in translation from Swedish to English but regardless, the genie is now out the bottle and there are calls for Israel, currently pursuing genocide against it's neighbour, to be booted out and join Russia on the sidelines.
Israel's president, Isaac Herzog, is putting pressure on the Eurovision organisers not to tell his country that their services are not required this year what with the mass slaughter of 30,000 civilians and everything, but the organisers may have found a get out by not banning Israel itself but the Israeli song, October Rain, as being 'too political'.
Israel’s culture and sports minister, Miki Zohar, called the prospect 'scandalous' and called on the European Broadcasting Union to: 'act professionally and neutrally, and not to let politics affect art' which makes a change from just reaching for the usual antisemitism foghorn but Israel could avoid the embarrassment of being dumped alongside Russia by withdrawing themselves from the contest anyway.
I am no fan of Israel and what it has been doing over the past 60 years but i am all in favour of allowing Israel to compete because as the UK found out when we went around dropping bombs on people in the Middle East, Europeans have no fear of blowing a big fat raspberry and handing out nul points to nations going around massacring people so let them sing and don't deny us Europeans the opportunity to reflect the sentiment of Europe.
