They couldn’t resist breaking the rules lmao, but face no consequences, besides being mad about it

Israel has threatened to withdraw from this year’s Eurovision Song Contest if organizers decide to reject its entry amid wider calls for the country’s exclusion over its military campaign in Gaza.

The European Broadcasting Union is currently reviewing the lyrics of Israel’s entry, a song called “October Rain” by Russian-Israeli singer Eden Golan, which is thought to reference the victims of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks. If the EBU decides Israel has breached its rules by submitting content deemed political, the body will allow it to submit new lyrics or a new song.

Israel’s Public Broadcasting Corporation earlier said it has “no intention to replace the song” if it is not approved, warning that it will pull out of the contest scheduled for May in Malmö, Sweden. Israel’s culture minister has stated that while the song reflects “the current public sentiment in Israel these days,” that doesn’t make it “a political song.”

Israel became the first non-European nation to compete in Eurovision in 1973, and has since won the competition four times.

read more: https://www.semafor.com/article/02/27/2024/israels-controversial-eurovision-song-entry

    • NoSpiritAnimal@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Most Israelis are just immigrants from Europe/US. Even the singer in this article is actually Russian. Netanyahu’s real name is Mileikowsky. He graduated from Cheltenham High School outside of Philadelphia.

      Their current president Isaac Herzog is the first Israeli President actually born in Israel. His mother is from Egypt and his Father is from Ireland.

      Given the nature of Israel’s foundings this should be not terribly surprising. Israelis are just whites from Europe and The US.

    • gazter@aussie.zone
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      8 months ago

      Eurovision has very little to do with being in Europe. Even Australia is in Eurovision, and they are definitely not in Europe.

        • NIB@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurovision_Song_Contest

          If you scroll down to the participation section, you will notice that all of northern Africa and some of middle east is eligible to participate(it has to do with old Telegraph networks). And some of them are participating or participated in the past.

          Most dont participate because Eurovision is gay as fuck and these countries dont like that. And because of Israel’s participation.

          Nowadays pretty much anyone can join. Even China was about to join but because they censored the broadcast(because one country had a gay singer and another had a tattooed one) the EBU kicked them out

          As a result, the EBU terminated its partnership with Mango TV, citing that censorship “is not in line with the EBU’s values of universality and inclusivity and its proud tradition of celebrating diversity through music,”

          • Cyclohexane@lemmy.ml
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            8 months ago

            Most dont participate because Eurovision is gay as fuck and these countries dont like that.

            Source?

            • NIB@lemmy.world
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              8 months ago

              Hungary left because it was too gay.

              https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungary_in_the_Eurovision_Song_Contest

              while no official reason for the withdrawal was given by the broadcaster, an inside source speaking with the website Index.hu speculated that the contest was considered “too gay” for MTVA to participate

              Turkey left because they didnt like the scoring system and because of lgbtq “In August 2018, İbrahim Eren, the Director-General of TRT, stated that TRT does not plan to return to the contest and break the boycott for various reasons, citing Conchita Wurst’s participation and eventual victory in 2014.”

              https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkey_in_the_Eurovision_Song_Contest

              https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_in_the_Eurovision_Song_Contest

              Lebanon almost joined but didnt due to Lebanon’s laws banning the broadcast of Israeli content. Qatar, is outside of EBU, but kinda wanted to join but things seem to not have progressed since then. Tunisia tried to join but eventually withdrew because of Israel. Morocco participated once in the past, didnt do well and left. They also have issues with Israel.

              Generally their main issue is Israel but do you honestly think they would be ok with a song like this?

              https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaolVEJEjV4

              It is just that their Israel issue supersedes their issues with lgbtq. But if somehow everyone in Middle East loved Israel tomorrow, most of them would still abstain from Eurovision because of the lgbtq. In many of these countries, women arent even allowed to wear a miniskirt, do you think they would be willing to show Eurovision uncensored?

              PS Turkey even won Eurovision in 2003, and had plenty of top 5 finishes in the following years.

              • Cyclohexane@lemmy.ml
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                8 months ago

                So based on your comment, Arab and north African nations didn’t refuse participating because it’s gay. It’s because the organization harborsca genocidal entity (Israel).

                they would be ok with a song like this?

                Yeah I don’t see the issue and I’m an Arab myself. There’s homophobia in our land, but I’m not sure why you people act like we’re the only exceptionally homophobic place on earth. I sense its a projection of how your nations handled homophobia at its peak. Arab nations are unlikely to have a song like this of their own, but they won’t boycott the competition for it.

                most of them would still abstain from Eurovision because of the lgbtq.

                Wrong and you have nothing to prove this :)

                In many of these countries, women arent even allowed to wear a miniskirt

                Wrong. There’s probably like one or two countries that do this (depending on how far east you are including). Saudi Arabia is the notable one (the state created by Britain), and Iran if you go that far east.

                Turkey

                Hungary

                Not Arab or north African.

                • NIB@lemmy.world
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                  8 months ago

                  Do you think that Hungary and Turkey are more conservative than your average arab nation? If lgbtq is an issue for these countries, dont you think it is safe to assume that this will be an issue for most arab countries?

                  • Cyclohexane@lemmy.ml
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                    8 months ago

                    Given that Hungary literally bs outwardly said “we don’t like euro vision because it’s too gay” and Arabs said “because it harbors a genocidal state”, then the evidence is clear. You people have this notion that only Arabs are exceptionally homophobic. What more does Hungary have to do for you to stop Arab exceptionalism?

    • tree@lemmy.zipOP
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      8 months ago

      It only has to do with being an ebu/sister org member which many arab states are eligible to compete, but refuse to do so since Israel is in it/ in some cases having laws preventing the broadcasting of anything Israel was involved in making.