Eurovision Used to Be a Campy Joy – Yet It Has Become a Cynical Way to Whitewash War.
A recent acronym emerged a couple of months into the military campaign against Gaza. Known as WCNSF, it means “Wounded child, no surviving family”. This acronym is unique to Gaza, according to medical experts including paediatricians. Typically, it is rare for physicians to treat a young patient who has seen the death of their complete family. Yet, there has been absolutely nothing ordinary regarding the widespread destruction in Gaza, where whole bloodlines have been wiped out and the number of children who have lost limbs surpasses that of anywhere else in the world. Nothing normal in scores of doctors arriving back from a landscape of rubble with reports of children being intentionally shot at.
An Unimaginable Crisis In Spite Of a Announced Cessation of Hostilities
Gaza remains an utter catastrophe. Essential medical supplies are not getting in those in need, and international watchdogs contend that atrocities are ongoing. Officials has denied these allegations, just as it denies all charges it is implicated in. Meanwhile, while grieving children who lost parents 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 declared purpose of “unity and artistic sharing.” The contest will continue to roll out a blood-red carpet for Israel, although several European countries have now pulled out in protest. Since this, it seems, is what global togetherness looks like.
The contest, notably excluded Russia from taking part in 2022 due to the “unprecedented crisis in Ukraine”. However, the situation in Gaza seems entirely distinct.
A Double Standard
Forget the fact that Israel was accused of unfair vote practices last year in what seems to have been an effort to politicise Eurovision. Set aside the news that a young child was allegedly fatally struck in Gaza just days ago. Forget the fact that aggression from Israeli settlers and systematic expulsions in the West Bank have surged. Disregard the condition that global media are still blocked from independent reporting in Gaza. This entire context, apparently, should be allowed to get in the way of Eurovision’s cherished spirit of unity.
The Show Goes On Against a Backdrop of Unimaginable Suffering
Eurovision reaches its seventieth anniversary next year – roughly two times the average life expectancy of a person in Gaza today. The event will proceed, but it will likely never recapture the pure, unadulterated fun it once represented. A contest that initially championed peace has devolved into a cynical way to provide a cultural veneer for conflict.
