Israel’s Place At Eurovision Song Contest Challenged By Petition From Finnish Music Community
deadline.comIsrael‘s place at this year’s Eurovision Song Contest is under the microscope following a petition signed by more than 1,400 Finnish music industry professionals urging a ban due to alleged “war crimes.” Echoing the state of play in 2022 after Russia invaded Ukraine, the group says that local broadcaster YLE should threaten to pull Finland‘s entry if the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which runs Eurovision, doesn’t take action.
Signatories include Finnish artists Olavi Uusivirta, Paleface and Axel Ehnström, who represented Finland in Eurovision 2011 under the name Paradise Oskar.
Icelandic musicians made similar demands to local network Rúv last month. Lukas Korpelainen, the initiator of the petition, said to local paper Hufvudstadsbladet that “Israel violates human rights” and “we don’t think it’s okay for the country to be part of the Song Contest to polish its image.” The EBU has previously backed Israel, stating in December that Eurovision is “for broadcasters – not for governments” and that Israel has taken part for 50 years.
But the situation looks unlikely to go away and YLE’s head of communications told a local newspaper that the network is following the situation closely, while talking to the EBU and other public broadcasters.
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