#and it's not about Eurovision

[heritageposts]

The Eurovision song contest is facing intense scrunity and accusations of discrimination after it rebuked Swedish-Palestinian pop star Eric Saade for wearing a Palestinian scarf in the opening act of the semi-finals. Saade, whose father is of Palestinian origin, kicked off the first semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest in Malmo, Sweden on Tuesday evening with a keffiyeh, a traditional Palestinian and Arab male headdress, wrapped around his wrist. [...] In response, the organisers of the contest, European Broadcasting Union (EBU) released a statement saying it "regretted" that Saade wore the scarf. "The Eurovision Song Contest is a live TV show. All performers are made aware of the rules of the contest, and we regret that Eric Saade chose to compromise the non-political nature of the event," it said. [...] Eurovision later posted clips of the performances of the other two opening acts on its social media pages, but did not share Saade’s, prompting social media users to share the performance on their personal pages to show support for the artist.

Waving Palestinian flags, wearing traditional Palestinian garments, or if we're being honest, just being Palestinian, is now officially "too political" for Eurovision.

Literally, all Saade did was wear a keffiyeh around his wrist—while being Palestinian—and that was enough to get a statement from the EBU, and have his opening performance scrubbed from Youtube.

If you're not already boycotting Eurovision this year, then what the fuck is wrong with you?

Below are two statements from Saade. The first one, giving his reason for participating, was posted a few days ago, and the other was in response to the EBU accusing him of 'compromising the non-political nature' of the Genocide Song Contest:

Reminder again to BOYCOTT EUROVISION 🇵🇸

[alanaisalive]

Now that Eurovision is over, I want you all, especially the Americans, to take a good hard look at how the voting results turned out when people boycotted the event.

In the UK, the viewing figures were down about 2 million people compared to last year. Up to 2 million people made the conscious decision to not watch and not vote because of Israel's inclusion.

The final results of the public vote, Israel came in first place in the UK and got 12 points. Because the only people watching and voting were people who backed Israel or at least didn’t care one way or another.

This doesn't matter. It's a music contest. The boycott was still the right thing to do because it is just a show at the end of the day, and the viewing figures have more impact than the results.

But it is also a good object lesson to show you what happens if you boycott a vote over something that does matter. Choosing not to vote in, let's say, a presidential election will have similar results.

[afusionoffandoms]

[violottie]

[ak1w1i]

Want to boycott despite having zionist (or willingly non-boycotting) guardians?

Of course. some people are the children of zionists, or their caregivers just don't boycott. Here are ways to boycott despite this.

- If caregivers ask if you want McDonald's, Dominos, etc for a meal, decline if you can and make yourself something else or ask for something else. Even if they still buy from those places, any less money towards genocide is less money towards genocide.

- Offer to help grocery shopping and pick out brands that DON'T support Israel. You can mask it as wanting to try something new or hearing about the brand from a friend.

- If caregivers offer to take you to Starbucks (etc), decline.

- Thrift and shop from independent grocers. Often times, these stores (especially whole food markets and organic grocers) do NOT stock things from large corporations, so if you're with a caregiver, they may not to be tempted to buy from zionist companies, and it works for a good cover for not buying from megacorps.

- If caregivers made plans to go to Disney Land/World and you can't back out, don't buy from the gift shops. Of course you can't not eat while at the parks, but not buying from the gift shop is a good way to not give money to Disney.

This is what I thought of, if you have any ideas or corrections feel free to add them in reblogs!! Your effort in boycotting matters and makes a difference.

Don't stop talking about Palestine.

Don't stop boycotting.

End the genocide.

End the apartheid.

Free Palestine.

[feelsforsterek]

➥ PSA: KÄÄRIJÄ IS A GROWER, NOT A SHOWER.

[hjemne]

Finland literally got 87% of all available public votes (376/432) AND YET even if they got 100% of the possible public points (150+432 = 582) they still wouldn't have overtaken Sweden (583), and that's the heart of the problem. If every single country agrees on the best song, it should absolutely win. This is why everyone is SO mad at the juries this year, even though Loreen came second in the televote. It's why people are (jokingly) asking for negative voting, because the juries made it literally impossible for the overwhelming favourite to win

[scaredforboomboom]

slutty_shakira_dancing_upclose_720.mp4

[geriatricfunkyman]

with all the media shitstorm of käärijä vs. loreen can we acknowledge how supportive loreen is being towards käärijä? a swedish reporter kept trying to bait her to talk shit by asking how bad it must’ve felt to hear “cha cha cha” from the crowd every time sweden got 12 points and loreen kept answering with nothing but praise for käärijä’s performance. i’m pretty sure that if the artists have their shit sorted out between them that the public should too.

[lu-does-eurovision]

Changes we need to bring to 2024 Eurovision:

– Reduce jury votes: I get that eliminating them completely is not a possibility. The EBU wouldn't agree to that. However, maybe their importance should be lower. Make the vote 70% Public + 30% jury. In the end, people should be the ones selecting the winner, not a 5 person jury often selected in a non-transparent manner.

– Winners shouldn't be allowed to come back. And not only past winners, but also consolidated artists. Harry Styles shouldn't represent the UK nor Rosalía with Spain. They already have the spotlight. Past winners also had their moment and enjoyed the momentum. The opportunity should be offered to those who haven't tasted it yet.

– Israel shouldn't participate. This one is self-explanatory. It's hypocritical for the EBU to ban Russia from competing and not Israel. They should do better.

[heritageposts]

🇵🇸 From the second ESC semi-final: man waves a small Palestinian flag during Israel's performance, and is immediately escorted out by security

I've seen people try to excuse this by saying there's always been a list of approved flags for Eurovision.

And yes, while it's true that ESC has had an official flag policy for years now—with nation flags either limited to those with UN status, or to participating countries—it's also something that has only been selectively enforced in the past, and never which the kind of hostility we're seeing in Malmö right now.

The first time I remember hearing about the Eurovision flag policy was in 2016, when a Sami artist was representing Norway. The Norwegian broadcaster of ESC, NRK, reported then that the Semi flag was "technically" banned from the ESC arena, but that, according to ESC's the former head of communications, it would be up to the security at the arena whether they enforced this ban or not:

The music competition's rules state that it is only permitted to use flags from the participating countries, from countries that have previously participated, or from countries that are full members of the UN. It is therefore not allowed to wave the Sami flag when Agnete goes on stage on 14 May in Stockholm. - Technically speaking, that is correct, as the Sami flag is not part of the UN or is represented in the Eurovision Song Contest. I understand that the question can arouse emotions as Agnete has Sami roots, says Paul Jordan, communications manager for the Eurovision Song Contest to Sameradion in Sweden When asked what might happen if the public shows up with a Sami flag during the competition, the communications manager says that it will be up to the doormen to decide. - Technically, it is not allowed according to the current rules. Right now I don't know what would have happened at the entrance. Technically, it can be confiscated, but I cannot guarantee that, says Jordan to Sameradion.

I could write several paragraphs about just how revolting it is that the Sami flag was even banned to begin with (they reverted it in 2016, after months of backlash), but the point I want to drive home right now is that there is nothing "apolitical" about the EBU's flag policy, or the way it is enforced.

Reminder again to BOYCOTT EUROVISION 🇵🇸

Don't watch, don't vote.

[doomdoomofdoom]

If you've been boycotting Eurovision, you may have missed out on how bad it truly was, so here are a few events in no particular order:

The opening act of the semi-finals was Eric Saade, a swedish-palestinian singer who participated in Eurovision 2011. He wore a keffiyeh, a palestinian headdress, around his arm like a wristband.

Despite not making any political statements or drawing attention to his accessory, he was reprimanded by the EBU for "compromising the non-political nature of the event".

During their semi-final performance, the Irish contestant had the word "ceasefire" in old irish runes painted on their face. They were ordered to change it for the final, as it was deemed too political.

The contestant from Israel was not allowed to mingle with the other contestants, due to supposed security risks.

During an Interview, she was asked if she felt any concerns over her participation potentially endangering the event and the people present. The host told her she did not have to answer this question. Dutch contestant 'Joost' asked "why not?"

Joost, while not openly antagonizing the Israeli contestant, has made covert critical remarks about the EBUs decision to allow Israel to participate.

On Friday, the day before the Finale, Joost was investigated by the swedish police for a supposed incident where he threatened an EBU crew member. Thursday, a female camera operator had followed him off-stage to continue filming, even though there was an agreement not to film him off-stage. After she ignored his requests to stop, he threatened her with some sort of gesture.

Joost was disqualified mere hours before the finale. He was slotted to perform just before Israel and considered a favorite and potential winner.

The show itself did not address his disqualification. The dutch entry was simply skipped with no further comment.

Israeli broadcaster KAN was confirmed to have broken EBU rules during their coverage of the Irish act in the Semifinal. The commentator spoke negatively about their act, condemning the very scary goth aesthetic, and noting their willingness to criticize Israel's actions.

Despite Irish contestant Bambie Thug lodging a complaint with the EBU, there was no penalty or other repercussion.

If you were hoping that the event itself would turn into some sort of protest, I have to disappoint you:

Despite rumors of other contestants dropping out over Joost's disqualification, all of them performed.

There was audible booing every time Israel was on-screen, including their performance, announcement of points, and every time they received points. There was equally audible cheering.

No contestant or spokesperson directly addressed the ""controversy"" (read: ongoing genocide being artwashed), although very few made covert remarks about peace, love, dignity, and equality.

The most explicit it got was the Austrian spokesperson, saying something along the lines of "It's hard to find only positive words in a time where heartlessness prevails. But we hope everyone can unite through music and show that everyone deserves to be treated equally"

No one stormed on stage or held up a palestinian flag or anything, if you were hoping for that. I certainly was.

Israel gave its 12 points (both Jury and public) to Luxembourg. The singer is half-israeli and born in Jerusalem.

Jury votes mostly ignored Israel, netting them a total of 52 points through jury votes, which put them somewhere in the middle of the scoreboard. Norway, Cyprus, and Germany awarded them 8 points each, making them the main contributors.

In contrast, Israel received 323 points from the public voting. They were second only to Croatia with 337. 15 public votings, including "rest of the world" awarded Israel their 12 points, more than any other country would receive. The only countries not to award any points to Israel in the public vote were Croatia and Ukraine.

Israel thereby placed 5th out of 25.

But hey, at least the winner (Switzerland) was nonbinary, diversity win amirite. Notably, they had to smuggle in their pride flag, since EBU guidelines only allow flags of participating countries and the rainbow flag. (This is also why palestinian flags were not allowed. It's not a new rule, but they certainly weren't going to start bending it now.)

If there's one thing to take away from this: Do not ever think the rest of the world is on your side, just because your social media is. The rest of the world has shown their allegiance, and it lies with Israel and Genocide.

Do not stop fighting for what is right.

[icypiece]

[virtualpeople]

(muffled cha cha cha sounds)

[letgomypartypiece]

another one to my joost kneeling collection

[feelsforsterek]