The annual commemoration of al Nakba on May 15 – the 1947 catastrophe when 750,000 Palestinians were evicted from their homes and thousands of Palestinian villages wiped off the map – coincides this year with the Eurovision Song Contest, taking place in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv.
Ramadan has also begun, and Israeli crackdowns during Ramadan and around al Nakba commemorations are a given. What is different this year is the viciousness of the attacks and Israel’s determination that its Eurovision PR showcase will proceed, uninterrupted by questions about its human rights record.
As Palestine continues to endure al Nakba, Israel’s dreams for the peerless success of the Eurovision Song Contest have not matched reality. The expected ticket sales and tourism boom have not materialised.
A number of tickets are always reserved for Eurovision officials and visiting dignitaries and rehearsals and semi-finals are almost as popular as the grand final.
To help bulk out the audience in one rehearsal, Israel took the unusual step of reserving 500 ticketsfor Israeli Defense Force (IDF) personnel. It is not known if they will be uniform, however.
Broadcast partners and performers have faced protests from Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaigns around the world, but Israel is painting the low ticket sales as an overpricing problem. Palestinians are unable to attend due to Israel’s apartheid wall, and Israel has said it will deny entry to any activists supporting the BDS campaign.
Read the article by Lisa Gleeson in Green Left Weekly.