To dream under the official Motto “Dare” starts the Eurovision Song Contest on may 14. May in Tel Aviv. To celebrate for a reason, for the other occasion, Boycott. From Israel Sarah Hofmann.
Kobi Marimi represents Israel at the Eurovision Song Contest in 2019
Irit Shalev, sitting in the mask of Israel’s private TV station Reshet 13. She is nervous. Even the eyeliner, then it is hot with your group “Eurofalsh” Izhar Cohen “Olé olé” to perform the choreography dance its and the lips to move. Izhar Cohen is a legend in this country. He won in 1978 as the first Israeli to the ESC and made sure that the small country was allowed to align in the Middle East for the first time, the European Song Contest.
“The fact that the ESC is taking place now in Tel Aviv, is for us like a dream,” says Shalev. “Not only because we are total Fans, but also because we long to reap at last the fruit of our year.” For the past twenty years, there is the Lip Sync combo “Eurofalsh”, the nachtanzt only title of ESC musicians.
Play back dancer of “Eurofalsh”: Eran Luna, Irit Shalev, and Tzur Maron Koronio
Tel Aviv is still adorned by the independence day with the flag of Israel in the last days, more and more colorful ESC-posters with the slogan “Dare to Dream”. To dream “dare” as the official Motto. “Tel Aviv, with its beaches, is sexy and cool,” says Shalev. “It is the perfect place for the Song Contest.”
Buses on the Holy Sabbath? Ultra-Orthodox Jews are outraged
Originally, the ESC should take place in Jerusalem, so as then, after the first Israeli victory, Izhar Cohen. But then Israel’s ultra-announced-Orthodox Jews Protest. Because the final will take place as usual at the ESC – on a Saturday night. Thousands of employees would have to work on Saturday to make this possible. For strictly religious Jews a taboo, because the Sabbath is the Holy day of rest.
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When it became clear that the European broadcasting Union, the organisers of the ESC, would not be ready to move the final, the Israeli government, and moved the competition to Tel Aviv. In the secular parties and the Start-Up scene known metropolis special buses for the day of the finale are forbidden on the Sabbath in Israel, a strictly – planned to be used. And for the Grand Finale is, of course, rehearsed all Saturday. For the ultra-Orthodox party “United Torah Judaism” is reason enough coalition to have talks with Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party for the time being, burst.
But this is not the only concern of the government in view of the Festivals, which draw thousands of tourists to Tel Aviv and a world showcase that is open to the peace-loving Israel. Well a week before the Start of the competition, there was a further outbreak of violence between Hamas in the Gaza strip and Israel. In Tel Aviv, no sirens sounded, but in Ashkelon and Ashdod, just half an hour by car from Tel Aviv – had to flee, the people in the Bunker. In just two days, the Hamas and the Islamic Jihad from the Gaza strip, some 700 rockets fired at Israel, four Israelis were killed, dozens wounded. The Israeli army has attacked more than 300 targets in the Gaza strip, according to Palestinian reports, 25 people were killed. A nightmare for the Israeli government, which wants to keep the ESC from any middle East reporting.
How safe are ESC’s?
Although the reasons for this escalation are multi-faceted, said the Islamic Jihad: “We will hold the enemy of a successful Festival stop, which aims to damage the Palestinian Narrative”. In Tel Aviv, the mood is nevertheless left. On the street you always hear these sentences: “The Palestinians need the Europeans. You will not dare, during the ESC to attack”. Or also: “The ESC means a lot of fun. And he shows us that we are a country like any other – at least, we believe that for a short period of time.”
“The ESC was established more than 60 years ago to life to unite Europe after the war,” says Irit Shalev of “Eurofalsh”. “Today, the Song Contest is often seen as superficial, but in my eyes he is not. Still this original spirit is felt. Within the ESC bubble, there is no Religion, no gender, no skin color. We are all United in music and fun.”
“The Contest here in Tel Aviv, brings together, no man,” says Tanya Rubinstein, “the Palestinians can simply be here. A Palestinian from the West Bank needs a permit from the Israeli army, to come here and he will not probably get. So this is not a Celebration of being together.”
Protesters in front of the press entrance to the Red-Carpet reception at the Habima square
Rubinstein is not working for the Israeli government organization “coalition of women for peace,” and it prepares totally different to the Eurovision Song Contest: they organized demonstrations, among other things, on the evening of the finale in front of the Fairgrounds where the Contest takes place.
Calls to boycott the ESC in Israel
And so it is not the Only one. The BDS movement calls for boycotts, divestments and sanctions against Israel, calls for months, States, and singers to participate in the Contest in Tel Aviv to cancel. With Roger Waters of Pink Floyd, one of the most Prominent BDS advocate, the in own Shows anti-Semitism is accused of. In the eyes of the ESC, the Israeli government used “brutal Israeli apartheid regime of whitewashing the outside”.
The student Shoval Shirom makes you angry. “We won the Song Contest for the first Time after 20 years. We just had a good song, and won. It is our right as every other country is hosting the Contest. The people who demonstrate against the ESC, want to deny Israel the right to exist,” she says.
On the edge of the Entry, the participants of the ESC in the so-called “Orange Carpet” at Tel Aviv’s Central Habima square, it came already to the first protests. Several dozen young demonstrators knelt on the edge of the square. They wore T-Shirt with the inscription “Free Palestine”, as well as the black blindfolds and arms, as prisoners had been connected behind the back.
To date, no ESC country has recalled its participation. Only the Icelandic Band Hatari is suspected to want to protests to participate. 14. May begins the ESC semi-final in Tel Aviv. A day later, Palestinians commit each year on the day of the “Nakba”, “catastrophe”, you want to remember flight and expulsion after Israel’s founding in 1948. 18. May held the final in Tel Aviv.
Irit Shalev has managed to get Tickets for the final. You definitely want to be there live, if your country man Kobi Marimi sings in front of thousands of Fans from all over Europe. Tanya Rubinstein can’t share the joy. You will stand in front of the exhibition hall and try to draw the attention of the Fans for a Moment from the Party.