The Eurovision Song Contest Used to Be a Campy Joy – Yet It Has Transformed Into a Calculated Tool to Sanitize Conflict.
A freshly coined term emerged a couple of months after the start of the military campaign against Gaza. Referred to as WCNSF, it stands for “Wounded child, no surviving family”. This acronym is unique to Gaza, per insights from doctors including child health specialists. Normally, it is uncommon for doctors to treat a child who has lost their whole family. However, there has been no semblance of normality concerning the widespread destruction in Gaza, where entire family lineages have been eradicated and the number of children who have lost limbs exceeds that of any other region in the world. No sense of normalcy about many doctors arriving back from a landscape of rubble with reports of children being systematically aimed at.
A Hell on Earth Regardless of a Reported Truce
Gaza remains hell on earth. Vital medicines and equipment are being blocked those in need, and international watchdogs contend that violations are still being committed. The Israeli government disputes these allegations, consistent with how it disavows each claim it is implicated in. But while young survivors are now freezing in improvised encampments, there is a piece of uplifting information: apparently nothing is going to stop the Eurovision from pursuing its stated mission of “unity and artistic sharing.” Eurovision will continue to roll out a welcoming platform for Israel, even though several European countries have now withdrawn in objection. Since this, apparently, is what international harmony manifests as.
Eurovision, of course excluded Russia from participating in 2022 due to the “serious conflict in Ukraine”. However, the situation in Gaza is completely different.
A Double Standard
Forget the fact that Israel was alleged to have used unfair vote practices last year in what seems to have been an bid to inject politics into Eurovision. Forget the fact that a three-year-old girl was allegedly fatally struck in Gaza just days ago. Neglect the data that aggression from Israeli settlers and forced displacement in the West Bank have increased dramatically. Overlook the situation that foreign reporters are still denied freely reporting in Gaza. This entire context, it would seem, should be permitted to obstruct of Eurovision’s much-touted ethos of unity.
The Pageant Proceeds While Ignoring Unimaginable Suffering
Eurovision reaches its seventieth anniversary next year – roughly two times the average life expectancy of a person in Gaza today. The broadcast will air, but it will never be able to restore the pure, unadulterated fun it historically embodied. A contest that was originally built on harmony has devolved into a transparent instrument to sanitize military aggression.
