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”.

    • Hawk@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      7 months ago

      Except for Australia, all participating countries are a member of the EBU, which is why they can enter.

      • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        And Australia got invited to join (officially as a guest, I think) because the competition was super popular in Australia already.

        While the ACTUAL reason is TV revenue for EBU, I prefer to see it as them being allowed to join because of the enthusiasm of the people 😁❤️

    • Linkerbaan@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      To be fair, Israelis are extremely European. In fact 75 years ago they mostly lived in Europe. They should consider going back.

      The problem here is that Putin was banned two years ago for war crimes and israel is not while it is committing a massive Genocide.

      • nonailsleft@lemm.ee
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        7 months ago

        I think today, around 40% of Israeli’s is of European descent. In Australia, that’ll be closer to 90%