There’s been so much noise surrounding Israel’s entry in the Eurovision Song Contest this week that the music has been muted.
Against a backdrop of petitions and calls to ban contestant Yuval Raphael and her song, “New Day Will Rise,” the survivor of the October 7 Nova massacre soldiered on in Basel, Switzerland, rehearsing the song for the first onstage performance.
The first rehearsal was closed to the media, but the website Eurovision Fun reported that she performed in front of a large, two-tier circular structure.
“Picture a modern twist on a vintage birdcage or a climbable chandelier – it’s not entirely either, but that should give you an idea until you can see photos,” wrote Eurovision Fun’s Alvaro Sanabria-Rangel.
He continued, “Yuval begins her performance amid blue shadows on the frame stage, dressed in a tailored black trouser suit with square shoulders and flowing flamenco sleeves… Up close, the cage is revealed to be constructed from individual crystal strands, much like a chandelier. At one moment, she lifts her arms in a way that makes her sleeves resemble wings, reinforcing that birdcage image.”
Yuval Raphael faces Eurovision insider backlash
Following the rehearsal, Raphael rose to fourth place in the online betting odds to win the competition.
Her Keren Peles-penned song is widely seen as being about overcoming the trauma of the October 7 massacre, and is sung mostly in English with some lines in Hebrew and French.
Raphael will perform in the second semifinal on May 15, with the final on May 17.
If some Eurovision insiders have their say, Raphael won’t get to either.
More than 70 former Eurovision participants, who wrote an open letter, posted on artistsforpalestine.org.uk on Tuesday, demanding that Kan, Israel’s government broadcaster, not be allowed to compete.
Among the signatories to the letter are Mae Muller of Britain, Charlie McGettigan of Ireland, and Fernando Tordo from Portugal. Over 30 of those who signed are from Iceland, while nine are Finnish, which is to be expected, since last year, an Icelandic music organization and 1,400 Finnish music industry professionals called for Israel to be banned, due to the ongoing war against Hamas in Gaza.
The letter posted by the former participants contends that, “Kan is complicit in Israel’s genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza and the decades-long regime of apartheid and military occupation against the entire Palestinian people.”
It goes on to characterize last year’s Eurovision contest – in which Israel’s contestant, Eden Golan, was loudly booed during her performances and rehearsals and received so many death threats that Ronen Bar, the head of Israel’s General Security Services, had to personally supervise the security arrangements for her and the delegation – as “disastrous.”
However, the uses of that term is not in reference to the harassment that Golan and her team endured but to the fact that, the letter states, that “the EBU [European Broadcasting Union] allowed Israel to participate while it continued its genocide in Gaza, broadcast live for the world to see.”
The letter claims that, “Rather than acknowledging the widespread criticism and reflecting on its own failures, the EBU responded by doubling down – granting total impunity to the Israeli delegation while repressing other artists and delegations, making the 2024 edition the most politicized, chaotic, and unpleasant in the competition’s history.”
Noting that the EBU banned Russia following its invasion of Ukraine, the letter states, “We don’t accept this double standard regarding Israel.”
Not surprisingly, the letter does not mention Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, in which 12,00 people were killed, 364 of whom were attending the Nova festival with Raphael.
Ynet reported this week that Ireland has submitted a request to the EBU to hold a discussion regarding Israel’s participation in the contest.
The director general of Ireland’s national broadcaster said in his appeal that he was “shocked by the ongoing events in the Middle East, by the terrible impact on civilians in Gaza, and by the fate of the Israeli hostages.”
Martin Green, the newly appointed director of Eurovision, addressed previous calls by a Spanish broadcaster and others to ban Israel, in an interview last month: “Eurovision is a competition between public broadcasters, not between nations, and it must not be used as a springboard for political sanctions. This fundamental distinction makes it easy to understand the guideline adopted by the EBU in the face of various political pressures.”
He also clarified why Russia was banned, saying, “The Russian TV channel broadcasting this competition was linked to the Russian government and did not respect the rules.”
“My hope this year is that Eurovision does what it’s done for the past 69 years, which is show that music can bring us together,” Green said on Tuesday. “I know that sounds maybe a little bit twee, but that is the purpose of the contest.”
Raphael can get behind that hope, despite Thursday’s directives issued by the The National Security Council to Israelis traveling to Basel for the contest to conceal Jewish or Israeli symbols and stay away from protests, which are expected to proliferate through the week.
“I’m 100 percent focused on the music, I’m 100 percent focused on my song,” she told the Times of Israel last month. “There are things that I can control and things that I can’t control. Ultimately, there’s no point investing energy in something I can’t control… the most important thing to me is to bring honor to my country and do the best I can.”
