Eurovision Was Once a Campy Joy – Yet It Has Evolved Into a Strategic Method to Whitewash War.
A recent initialism surfaced a couple of months into Israel’s bombardment of Gaza. Referred to as WCNSF, it means “Wounded child, no surviving family”. This acronym is specific to Gaza, per insights from doctors such as child health specialists. Normally, it is unusual for doctors to treat a child who has seen the death of their complete family. However, there has been absolutely nothing ordinary concerning the genocide in Gaza, where whole bloodlines have been obliterated and the number of child amputees is greater than that of anywhere else in the world. No sense of normalcy about scores of doctors returning from a sea of ruins with reports of children being intentionally shot at.
An Unimaginable Crisis Regardless of a Reported Truce
Gaza remains hell on earth. Vital medicines and equipment are not getting in those in need, and groups like Amnesty International assert that violations are ongoing. Authorities disputes these claims, just as it denies each claim it is charged with. Yet as grieving children who lost parents are now freezing in improvised encampments, there is a piece of uplifting information: apparently nothing is going to stop the international singing competition from pursuing its professed goal of “togetherness and cultural exchange.” Eurovision will continue to offer a welcoming platform for Israel, although several European countries have now withdrawn in objection. Because this, it seems, is what global togetherness looks like.
Eurovision, of course excluded Russia from participating in 2022 due to the “grave situation in Ukraine”. Yet the conflict in Gaza seems treated differently.
A Selective Vision
Overlook the circumstance that Israel was criticized for questionable voting tactics last year in what appears to have been an attempt to inject politics into Eurovision. Set aside the news that a young child was allegedly fatally struck in Gaza recently. Pay no mind to the evidence that settler violence and systematic expulsions in the West Bank have escalated. Disregard the condition that global media are still prevented from independent reporting in Gaza. None of this, it would seem, should be allowed to get in the way of Eurovision’s much-touted ethos of unity.
The Show Goes On While Ignoring Staggering Tragedy
Eurovision turns 70 next year – nearly twice the average life expectancy of someone in Gaza now. The show may go on, but it will never be able to restore the whimsical pleasure it historically embodied. An institution that was originally built on togetherness has now become a cynical way to whitewash war.
