The Eurovision Song Contest Was Once a Campy Joy – Yet It Has Evolved Into a Calculated Tool to Whitewash War.
An new term came to light a couple of months into the military campaign against Gaza. Labeled WCNSF, it means “Wounded child, no surviving family”. This designation is unique to Gaza, per insights from health professionals like child health specialists. Ordinarily, it is unusual for doctors to treat a child who has been bereaved of their whole family. However, there has been nothing “normal” regarding the widespread destruction in Gaza, where whole bloodlines have been eradicated and the number of young amputees is greater than that of anywhere else in the world. Nothing ordinary in numerous doctors coming back from a sea of ruins with accounts of children being intentionally shot at.
A Hell on Earth In Spite Of a Announced Cessation of Hostilities
The Gaza Strip continues to be an utter catastrophe. Critical healthcare resources are failing to reach those in need, and international watchdogs have stated that genocidal acts are still being committed. Officials disputes these allegations, consistent with how it denies all charges it is implicated in. Yet as traumatised orphans are now suffering from the cold in improvised encampments, there is some ostensibly positive news: apparently nothing is going to stop the international singing competition from pursuing its professed goal of “togetherness and cultural exchange.” Eurovision will continue to roll out a welcoming platform for Israel, despite the fact that several European countries have now boycotted in dissent. And this, it seems, is what global togetherness looks like.
Eurovision, of course excluded Russia from taking part in 2022 because of the “unprecedented crisis in Ukraine”. Yet the conflict in Gaza is treated differently.
A Double Standard
Overlook the circumstance that Israel was accused of questionable voting tactics last year in what seems to have been an attempt to inject politics into Eurovision. Ignore the report that a three-year-old girl was allegedly fatally struck in Gaza just days ago. Neglect the data that aggression from Israeli settlers and coerced removal in the West Bank have escalated. Overlook the situation that global media are still denied freely reporting in Gaza. None of this, it would seem, should be seen as a barrier of Eurovision’s much-touted ethos of unity.
The Pageant Proceeds Against a Backdrop of Unimaginable Suffering
Eurovision turns 70 next year – nearly twice the projected longevity of someone in Gaza at present. The show may go on, but it will never be able to restore the camp joy it once represented. A competition that initially championed peace has devolved into a cynical way to whitewash war.
