Eurovision Was Once a Campy Joy – But It Has Become a Cynical Way to Whitewash War.
A freshly coined initialism emerged a few months after the start of Israel’s bombardment of Gaza. Labeled WCNSF, it means “Injured child with no living relatives”. This term is unique to Gaza, as stated by doctors including child health specialists. Normally, it is rare for physicians to attend to a minor who has been bereaved of their whole family. However, there has been no semblance of normality concerning the widespread destruction in Gaza, where whole bloodlines have been obliterated and the number of children who have lost limbs is greater than that of any other place in the world. Nothing ordinary about scores of doctors coming back from a landscape of rubble with accounts of children being deliberately targeted.
An Unimaginable Crisis Regardless of a Reported Truce
Conditions in Gaza persist as a profound humanitarian disaster. Critical healthcare resources are being blocked those in need, and major human rights organizations assert that atrocities are ongoing. The Israeli government disputes these allegations, just as it refutes everything it is charged with. Meanwhile, while young survivors are now freezing in temporary shelters, there is some ostensibly positive news: apparently nothing is going to stop the Eurovision from advancing its professed goal of “togetherness and cultural exchange.” The contest will continue to offer a blood-red carpet for Israel, despite the fact that a number of European countries have now pulled out in protest. Because this, we are told, is what global togetherness resembles.
Historically, Eurovision excluded Russia from participating in 2022 over the “serious conflict in Ukraine”. Yet the conflict in Gaza seems completely different.
Contradictory Principles
Overlook the circumstance that Israel was alleged to have used questionable voting tactics last year in what seems to have been an effort to inject politics into Eurovision. Set aside the news that a toddler was allegedly fatally struck in Gaza on a recent Sunday. Pay no mind to the evidence that attacks by settlers and coerced removal in the West Bank have surged. Overlook the situation that global media are still blocked from freely reporting in Gaza. This entire context, it would seem, should be seen as a barrier of Eurovision’s much-touted ethos of unity.
The Contest Continues Against a Backdrop of Unimaginable Suffering
Eurovision turns 70 next year – roughly two times the current lifespan of a person in Gaza at present. The broadcast will air, but it will never be able to restore the whimsical pleasure it was formerly known for. A competition that was originally built on togetherness has transformed into a blatant mechanism to whitewash war.
