The Eurovision Song Contest Used to Be a Campy Joy – Yet It Has Become a Calculated Tool to Sanitize Conflict.

A new initialism surfaced a couple of months into the intensive bombing of Gaza by Israel. Referred to as WCNSF, it means “Child casualty without any family left”. This acronym is unique to Gaza, per insights from medical experts including paediatricians. Normally, it is unusual for physicians to attend to a minor who has lost their entire family. Yet, there has been no semblance of normality about the widespread destruction in Gaza, where whole bloodlines have been eradicated and the number of young amputees is greater than that of any other place in the world. Nothing ordinary in many doctors arriving back from a landscape of rubble with accounts of children being systematically aimed at.

A Hell on Earth Regardless of a Reported Truce

Gaza remains hell on earth. Critical healthcare resources are being blocked those in need, and international watchdogs contend that atrocities are ongoing. Officials has denied these claims, consistent with how it refutes all charges it is accused of. Yet as grieving children who lost parents are now enduring frigid conditions in improvised encampments, there is a piece of uplifting information: apparently nothing is going to stop the international singing competition from continuing with its professed goal of “unity and artistic sharing.” The contest will continue to extend a blood-red carpet for Israel, despite the fact that at least four European countries have now pulled out in protest. Since this, apparently, is what global togetherness resembles.

Eurovision, of course banned Russia from competing in 2022 due to the “grave situation in Ukraine”. Yet the conflict in Gaza is entirely distinct.

A Double Standard

Forget the fact that Israel was accused of unfair vote practices last year in what appears to have been an bid to inject politics into Eurovision. Ignore the report that a young child was allegedly fatally struck in Gaza recently. Forget the fact that aggression from Israeli settlers and forced displacement in the West Bank have increased dramatically. Overlook the situation that foreign reporters are still prevented from independent reporting in Gaza. This entire context, evidently, should be seen as a barrier of Eurovision’s much-touted ethos of unity.

The Contest Continues While Ignoring Staggering Tragedy

The contest marks seven decades next year – nearly twice the average life expectancy of an individual in Gaza at present. The broadcast will air, but it will never be able to restore the whimsical pleasure it historically embodied. A contest that was originally built on peace has devolved into a cynical way to whitewash war.