It's Time to Talk About Israel at Eurovision

This was arguably the most difficult video I have had to make and one that I never thought I would make. But since we just the S*** show to end all s*** shows... here we go.
Do you think Israel should be banned from Eurovision in the future? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below. Also, there will be a video out of your results soon.
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Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research.

[@AmsterdaMadrid]

Great analysis of the Big Mess that was ESC 2024. And for putting the blame where it should be: the appalling behaviour of THAT country and the double standards of the EBU when disqualifying Joost because they have “zero tolerance”. Time for change: first “Moroccan” Oil out, then Israel:

[@Nedervill]

Israeli citizen here, will talk this through with all the possible respect and straightforwardness possible, point by point as you mentioned here. 1) You don't need to separate between Israeli citizens and the government, because of two reasons - first, we are a democratic nation and that’s what our majority has chosen to lead the country. I never voted for any of the current coalition parties, but I am still participated and feel like this government works within the expected lines. Second, regardless of our votes, there is entire support and agreement about military operation in Gaza, there are some disputes about what should be the main goal - getting back the hostages or eradicating Hamas, but we mainly agree that nothing can be done without using force. Many of us do hate the current government (me included), but unfortunately we cannot afford to do elections and freeze the entire country before we finish the operation. 2) There is no genocide in gaza. Israel does not kill Arabs or Palestinians because of their race or ethnicity. After all, we got around 2 million Arab citizens with all the possible rights and some privileges on top. If our hate was towards a particular ethnic group, why didn’t we start with our “inside” neighbours? What the IDF does is target the Terrorists within a high density populated area. Is it something “good”? No. But no urban military operation ever went without civilian casualties. Current list of IDF priorities, as i see it is : “Removal of Hamas -> Retrieval of the hostages -> establishing the IDF soldiers safety -> minimising the civilian casualties”, i.e. the IDF do takes the Palestinians civilians into calculation, but its not their top priority, obviously. Still, if you compare IDF to any other army, you will see much more effort to keep the civilians out of the fire. Feel free to bring counterexamples. 3) From EBU’s perspective, banning Israel “as they banned Russia” is putting the “=” between silently universally approved by the UN and somewhat criticised anti-terrorist operation and straightforward military invasion of another country. Israel was provoked and made a counter offensive move. Will you advocate for the exclusion of Ukraine if they will manage to push forward within Russian territory? This case will be much closer to the Israel case than the Russian comparison. 4) The Eurovision contest has always been and always will be political. When you make a competition based on county representatives, you just cannot not make it about the countries and politics. The Georgia case, as well as the Israeli first song variation were too much “in your face” I guess, but let us look at this year's Ukraine entry, as well as last year's France, Czechia, Croatia. We can keep going back and every year find another political song. 5) Benjamin Netaniahu did not ask to change the song so it will fit, it was done by Isaac Herzog, the president, as you can see in your own provided screenshot. The President in Israel is more or less equivalent to the King of England - more symbolic than a real political figure. 6) The Israeli delegation was antagonised even before they arrived. I don't know how one can expect “frendines” from someone that openly condemned time after time. Most of the team showed professionalism and stoicism, as Eden herself, for example, but some of them were dragged into mutual provocation, which I do not support. How do I know there were provocations from all the sides? It's enough just to look at the behaviour of Joost Klein or Marina Satti at the press conference, that, for at very least, were not instructed to behave respectfully. This surely can be extrapolated to their respect entire delegation’s culture. The israeli broadcast incident - once again i am not supporting at all that distasteful choice of words by him (by the way it sounds very clunky at hebrew, i may assume he wanted to say “prepare to be cursed” or “prepare your counter curses'', but non the less he said what he said.) But let's be real - Bambi Thug used their international Eurovision platform to speak against Israel and their participation, and the broadcaster mocked them on a much more local scale. Wouldn’t it be fair on your behalf to at least mention it in this video? 7) If the Israeli delegation members did anything breaking the rules and/or compromising other delegations' safety, I wish they would be punished accordingly. Same goes for any other delegations members. I guess it's for the EBU to decide. 8) I don't get your “Israeli message” take. What’s wrong about the message? Is it bad for grieving on the dead and wishing the hostages will come back? Is it wrong to sing about the main event of your current life? Let me use the whataboutism with Ukraine one more time. Why can they sing about their war struggle while Israeli singer cannot bring up the Israeli 9/11? Once again, upon telling you are “not buying into the Russian message”, you basically acknowledge once again, that the Eurovision is always about politics. 9) Skipping the Joost part, as not relevant, I can only wish him to eventually get what he deserves - will it be a huge apology from EBU or a nice fine - depends only on what he has done. 9) I am thankful as well that the juries tanked the Israeli song. The very last thing we need to deal with now is to host an international song contest. Having a very high televotes score is all Israel was aiming for this year. 10) Yes, the televote for Israel is mostly due the Streisand effect - the normies saw a determined and talented girl being booed for singing about loss of her friends in a massacre and decided to support her. Is it somehow different for supporting Kalush ot Konchita Wurst with their mid songs - you tell me. Anyway I find it very ironic that the protesters basically turned themselves into part of the scenery at Eden’s show. 11) I don’t know where you find the 1.5 mill argument. In the provided Ynet article it is reported that the government indeed did organise a campaign made of short tik-tok-like videos in 14 languages of Eden asking to support her against the bullies. Of course, like every government, ours is very good at overspending money for non-cost sht, but this campaign sounds much cheaper than 1.5 mil to me. Nonetheless, I find this spending stupid and it will be another reason to vote against Bibi’s coalition in the next elections. Of course it’s up to you to pretend like Israel does not exist further on, if you think that antagonism will help the discourse, or at least save any Palestinian lives. On my side i will try to answer any comment as honestly as i can, so AMA i guess lol.

[@Nitzpitz]

Well put. In really think Joost Klein was not fairly treated by the EBU, there have been many more incidents in other years and nothing like this ever happened. He asked nit to be filmed and his feelings should also be respected.

[@כרמלהברנר]

Well said.

[@estiearama8351]

Well said. Spot on. He is so ignorant with a mask of intellectual.....

[@jeboshifru]

I watched videos of Israeli CHILDREN calling for mass murder of other CHILDREN, so there is no need to read your entire essay. This is what matters: " first, we are a democratic nation and that’s what our majority has chosen to lead the country." Majority of those who vote. I presume you have people who ignore this circus, like any other decent country, otherwise, it's not a democracy (being forced to participate in the voting process and vote for the lesser evil is NOT a democracy). The fact that you said majority, and not everyone, proves that there are decent people in Israel too. Perhaps not the majority, but they are there.

[@Nedervill]

@@jeboshifru will you read the "essay" if you watch a video of Israeli children calling for peace or is it only works when it's proves your conformation bias? Then we have the second part of your comment when you do acknowledge there difference in Israeli population and that's not all of us wishing for mass murder of children. What is your comment about? Are you saying that apolitical minority is "Decent" because they decided not to vote, and perhaps change the government composition? If that's your point, I am strongly disagree. If more voters would come, maybe Bibi would finally leave the PM post for longer then two years, and maybe with some IDF restructures the 7/10 would never happen.

[@jamshall4330]

It seemed like the EBU included Isreal hoping they would keep their heads down and behave. Of course that completely goes against the fact that Isreal have repeatedly used the contest for self promotion and propaganda in the past. So I’m not sure why they thought that would happen

[@jeboshifru]

Money? They thought they would get paid by Israel and they were?

[@AharonAchildiev]

Ukraine also uses the competition for "propaganda". Why don't you say anything about that?

[@jeboshifru]

@@AharonAchildiev I do, and I did.But you are not in the same position as you. They're not doing genocide right now.

[@AharonAchildiev]

@@jeboshifru it’s a war, not a genocide. You guys can’t just invent new definitions for words as you wish. Please open a dictionary

[@jamshall4330]

⁠@@AharonAchildiev Because the video is about Isreal? Ukraine also weren’t accused of war crimes or genocide. You are right in a sense, pretty much every country at one point or another has used the contest for political/propaganda reasons. 99% of the time it is just on a tourist level. Isreal trying to send songs about how they are the victims or offer justification in participation in a conflict in which they are accused of committing acts of genocide and war crimes goes far beyond any perceived use of propaganda before in the contest even by as you mentioned Ukraine.

[@Sundancer09]

Israel advertised in Times Square encouraging people to vote 20 times for them. They also set up 'vote banks' for people to vote with multiple SIM cards. That's how they won the public vote in many counties, yet they still didn't win the contest.

[@כרמלהברנר]

You really made me laugh we dont have cards and nobody ask us to vote 20 times. This is a pure lie. Elections here are held in the most lawful way Israel is a democracy and we beleive in it. All the rest is just a lie I will not be able to enter the voting place without id card and my voting card. Shame on you fro spreading thins lie

[@AharonAchildiev]

Ok, so it gave Israel 12 points from the rest of the world. What's your point?

[@irispollinger8276]

Nonsense and bullshit

[@merisea5564]

Nope. I have never watched Eurovision and heard about these "advertisements" now for the first time. I voted Israel because we love the country and we feel that Israeli people were unfairly attacked by terrorists. 12 points from Finland. Israeli got no many point because we are fed up with these rallies and all the Pro-P cr_p.

[@dyread]

@@merisea5564 There were the advertisements. I think people in the 'rest of the world' expect that to be huge if they vote, but the maximum the rest of the world can give is 12 points. Even if it was 6 billion people. Israel should not have been in it for so many reasons, from their behaviour to the amount of times they gave in song lyrics which they changed and being a genocidal nation.

[@ESCowl]

Just to let you know, Bambie identifies as they/them!

[@BeySim1490]

Israel should win. He’s got the most beautiful song.

[@onlyhousestarklivesmatter]

Your taste is shit 🤷🏻‍♀️

[@joebogle3172]

I think Israel should be allowed to Compete because all Eden Golan wanted to do was sing her song and get hwr music out there

[@Sundancer09]

She fought in the IDF so she's complicit in war crimes. It will be the Hague next.

[@HelloKitty-we3ht]

@@Sundancer09 she didn't, stop lying. Meanwhile 70% of Palestinians support ha mas, so they are complicit...

[@JamieJooESC]

So long as they are not being disrespectful to others, it's ok to a degree, but they didn't appear to be respectful to a few acts, UK being one of them

[@janvermeer3931]

A truly indispensable contribution to the ESC. Please don't fill up KZbin with trash, go camping on a university campus instead.

[@Sundancer09]

Like millions of people, I didn't watch Eurovision this year and their ratings were down 25%. Despite cheating, Israel only came 5th. All those people wasted their money voting. 🤣

[@JamieJooESC]

How about you come up with a coherent argument as to why you disagree with me instead

[@pixeljames]

Well this isn't r/eurovision so I can say to you that you are completely misrepresenting things and there is only one conclusion about your bias.

[@typhoontim125]

Well done for saying what had to be said re what Israel is doing to Palestine! Israel should most definitely have been banned as they banned Russia previously.

[@deci5e1]

what a bunch of nonsense

[@typhoontim125]

@@deci5e1 Tell us more Einstein?...Support mass child murder do you?

[@zavillion893]

@@deci5e1 It is not nonsense whatsoever. What is nonsense is the fact that you support Israel after they've comitted multiple war crimes, killed thousands of civilians, are hindering any food, water, or electricity to get into gaza. The innocent Palestinian civilians being murdered by Israel are completely ignored because apparently to people like you only the Israel lives matter. Rethink about who you are supporting.

[@spencer4610]

Israel has the right to defend itself. It’s a completely different situation to the Russia Ukraine conflict. If anything Palestine is like Russia and Israel is like Ukraine.

[@thatpandaz6094]

@@spencer4610 Crazy how their borders keep expanding while they have been "protecting themselves" for the past 75 years. I wonder how that works

[@evgeniraikhel662]

Don't know how I got here, frankly (google algorithms). Yet another ill-informed and mostly ignorant person parrots the mass media narrative. Zero critical thinking or even an attempt to look into the fact. Well, at least 30(!) persons liked it. As for me - I don't even going to put a dislike here - not worth it...

[@JamieJooESC]

Did you watch the vid? Or do you just disagree with my opinion?

[@evgeniraikhel662]

@@JamieJooESC unfortunately I did, and I was experiencing something that is best described as the “spanish shame”.

[@TripG-lt1cl]

Colonies, as the pro-Palestinians like to tell everyone, are not created as independent entities. The whole idea behind colonialism is my outpost in a distant territory... take the Spanish colonies in South America, what did they bring there? A language that is the main outpost is the most important cultural link to change the face of the territory, who else has done this? Portugal This is how Brazil was created. France in African countries took what they could from those countries and everything went back to the country in Europe. Whose colony is Israel? If it is a western colony, why isn't the language of one of the western countries?! This is not a colony, this is a return to a historical homeland. For hundreds of years you did not like that this foreign people was among you, there is not a Jew who did not hear at least a few times in his life "return to your country" Well!! we are back . This is also wrong... It turns out that after 75 years of recognition of the self-determination of the Jews and now the grandchildren of those who pushed the Jews out are returning to demonstrate in the streets, get out of there too. OK, we understand what you want... you know other human beings who volunteer to die so that yours will be Comfortable and they won't bother you? We are not fighting for luxury, we are fighting to physically survive the murderous Islamist tsunami and warn that it will reach you too.

[@Sundancer09]

European Jews chose to emigrate to the Middle East where they had no family and forced indigenous Christians and Muslims from their land. Israel hadn't existed before 1948. Israelis will never have peace now as the world has turned against you. Sanctions are being implemented and the international court has Israel on trial for genocide.

[@williamj.blazkowicz4719]

You don't seem to like Israel very much, do you?

[@thatpandaz6094]

Why would someone like a settler colonial apherteid state?

[@jeboshifru]

It's like saying "You don't seem to like Germany very much, do you?" during the 1930s, if you criticized a nazi party. What people despise is not a country, not a culture, but the things someone does. Watching schoolchildren laughing at killing of other children and chanting to kill them all is what made me puke.

[@cajunxn17]

You do realize Palestine is the name of the settler colonial state established by Rome right? Syria Palaestina? The only sovereign state that has ever existed in that region is Israel/Judea. The original inhabitants were independent city states that never organized into a kingdom. Many civilizations incorporated the region into empires (Egypt, Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome, Ottoman, many Islamic Caliphates, Britain) but the ancient kingdom of Israel was the only independent state to rule itself in that land until the current sovereign state of Israel was created in the 1940s. The Western colonizers gave the land back to its rightful Jewish inheritors, something the Middle Eastern colonizers of the area never did.

[@jeboshifru]

@@cajunxn17 so... Americans should leave the USA and let it to their original inhabitants, who now still live in reservations? And should all the countries on the territory of the former ancient Rome just give up existing and say that it is Italy's right? How insane can you be? Countries, states, nation - appear live, and perish. Judea perished, man. And then imperialists decided that some lives matter more than the others, and fucked the people who lived there at the time.

[@jeboshifru]

@@cajunxn17 and yes, both you and the Arabs are semitic people. So being against bombing of children hospitals is just human, not anti-semitic.

[@Auri88]

Or hear me out. Israel and Palästine compete both in ESC and the country that wins gets the Land.

[@EmoBearRights]

Nah because Israel will fix the televote again.

[@typhoontim125]

@Auri88 The fact you can't even spell Palestine says everything

[@Auri88]

@@typhoontim125 maybe I am not an native speaker.

[@typhoontim125]

@@Auri88 Knowing how to spell Palestine doesn't rely on being a native speaker

[@JamieJooESC]

Yyyyeeeeaaaaaaaa... No

[@liul]

I won't watch Eurovision again until Israel is banned.

[@katek2432]

it makes everyone so sad (not really though).

[@waywardlyfe3092]

@@katek2432literally snorted with laughter 😂

[@HelloKitty-we3ht]

You won't be missed!

[@random_person2211]

I didn't even know you existed before I saw your comment and I think I'm not the only one. So, I think your absence would not bother anyone. By the way, Israel will never be banned.

[@liul]

Far right people in Spain were happy to share how they voted for Israel as much as they could, only because the left wing goverment has shown a bit of support for Palestine.

[@josephnewsome2935]

That’s petty doing something stupid just to “ own the libs”

[@Sundancer09]

Now Spain has officially recognised the State of Palestine because the majority chose to. Satanyahu threw a tantrum!

[@estiearama8351]

And you take yourself seriously for the BS you are soreading here?