Eurovision is supposed to be a celebration. Those lucky enough to bag tickets to the live shows are usually seen on TV dancing around the arena, cheering and having a fabulous time.
But during the jury show at this year’s song contest in Sweden, the atmosphere was anything but jubilant. Instead, the scenes inside the Malmö Arena were tense, and it’s not hard to guess why.
Clips shared online show how the usual cheers and applause were replaced by hostility, all of it directed at Eden Golan, Israel’s entry in this year’s competition. As she launched into her performance for the night, footage shows Golan being drowned out by booing and chants of “Free Palestine” from the audience. According to one attendee in the crowd, who shared their experience online, the “atmosphere inside the arena was horrible”.
Setting aside what others have said here. I think the article does a lot of framing by suggesting the protests and criticism are entirely directed at Israel’s entry. From what I’ve seen, the whole event itself is in the midst of a crossfire of criticism for letting Israel participate as well as being heavily biased in favor of the Israeli contestant. The Q&A with the contestants yesterday seemed to be very politicized in general. But once Golan was asked something, the organizers felt the need to clarify that she does not have to answer anything she felt uncomfortable with. That rubbed the (now probably former) contestant of the Netherlands the wrong way, asking “Why not?”. Well, the Joost situation certainly doesn’t help the organizers either. Whether they had anything to do with it or not, it puts the spotlight on them even more.
They’re continuously making fun of Joost on social media. Basically behaving like jackasses. They seem to like getting special treatment while behaving like a bully.