I must admit my own lifelong enthusiasm for the Eurovision Song Contest has dried up a bit recently - but that's actually not because of Israel. As long-term readers of the blog will remember, I went to Liverpool two years ago to see the semi-finals, and ended up in hospital due to a really nasty fall a few minutes after the second semi-final finished when I tripped over a large chain that was bizarrely placed right across a pedestrian walkway by the river. (To this day I simply cannot believe that such an obvious hazard was allowed to stay in place during a huge influx of visitors to the area - I really should have sent a written complaint to Liverpool City Council but I never got round to it.)
As a result of that, I've found myself thinking "if it wasn't for my stupid love of Eurovision, I would never have been in Liverpool that night and it would never have happened". I know that's totally irrational - the whole point about freakish incidents is that you don't see them coming and therefore you can't do much to avoid them, but unfortunately that's the way my mind seems to work. A few weeks afterwards, a friend of mine said he thought I was displaying mild symptoms of PTSD, and in retrospect maybe he had a point. I haven't listened to a single one of the songs this year, and I couldn't even tell you off the top of my head who is representing the UK, which is unheard of for me.
However, I'm sure I will watch the contest - it's an annual ritual for me and I can't imagine not doing it. And that does raise moral questions, because it's absolutely insane that Israel is allowed to compete as normal while they're in the middle of committing a genocide. Three participating countries have called for Israel's exclusion, but that will gain absolutely no traction because the apologists for Israel, led by Germany, have far too much influence within the European Broadcasting Union. Israel will not only be allowed to participate, but will doubtless also be actively protected as they were last year with anti-booing technology while the song is being performed.
So if people like me who hate what Israel is doing still want to watch the contest, is there any other way we can protest? The obvious point is that the outcome of the contest is partly decided by popular vote, and therefore there's an opportunity to vote tactically. But of course this isn't Big Brother - you can't vote negatively against the entry you most want to lose, and it's actually a lot easier for Israeli ex-pats and Israel apologists to organise themselves to ensure Israel ends up with an artificially good result, as they did last year.
Probably the best thing to do is just accept that Israel are likely to do well, but vote tactically to avoid the ultimate calamity of them actually winning and getting to host the contest next year. They're currently sixth favourites in the betting, so there may be a strong case for voting tactically for Sweden, who are yet again outright favourites to win, or for Austria, who aren't far behind as second favourites.
Another possible tack would be to 'reward' countries who have taken the strongest anti-genocide stand - most obviously Ireland, and perhaps also Spain, Norway, Iceland and Slovenia.
For a lot of people, part of the fun of watching Eurovision is to share their thoughts with others in real time on social media, so that creates an opportunity to point out that the booing of Israel is being removed by technological means, which many people will perhaps be oblivious to. It's also worth monitoring social media to see if subtitled clips emerge, as they did last year, of the Israeli TV commentators making disgraceful comments in Hebrew that mocked other countries' participants as being Hamas lovers. That would be an absolute blatant breach of the contest's rules against political interventions, and it would be hard (albeit not impossible) for the EBU to ignore complaints about it.
Source: Is it possible to watch the Eurovision Song Contest this year and still be a human being? (//)