How Eurovision became an opportunity for HUGE silent majority to have their say - and they did - Roger Gewolb
Israel came in 5th place in this year's Eurovision
Eurovision Song Contest has caused huge controversy this year
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What I saw on Saturday evening was a social phenomenon, a giant and unique opportunity for masses of people in 120 countries - a huge silent majority - to say, for the very first time, how they really feel about the Gaza/Hamas-Israel war, the protests, the unprecedented rise in anti-Semitism globally due to that war, and the effects of all of this on their individual lives.
In many countries, we continue to see demonstrations, such as in the UK weekly for the past seven months, involving tens and sometimes hundreds of thousands of people, protesting against the war, but also against Israel, and often, Jews.
Saturday and earlier we even saw huge demonstrations in Malmo, where the Eurovision contest took place, with the Israeli singer Eden Golan even frightened to leave her hotel room because of the masses of braying crowds outside.
Even at the final, there were still people booing at her, although perhaps less than in previous performances.
And, she only made it to the final because of the viewers’ vote; the 37 country judges didn’t want to let her, or Israel, in.
In the final voting, the various judges made their views clear as well. It was only the vote of the public, those many millions of citizens in all of those countries, that turned matters around.
But, for all the huge crowds of protesters, they are but a very small proportion of the citizens of those many countries.
And, watching the programme and listening to Graham Norton tell Britons how to vote, it occurred to me that this was the sole opportunity that those people had to express any opinion at all about what is happening today, much as two years ago Eurovision was a channel to protest Putin‘s invasion of Ukraine.
That is not to say that everyone was thinking about voting for Israel or not. However, I am in no doubt from everything I have seen in the media and broadcasts in which I have participated and messages sent to me, that a great many people were thinking about voting for Israel, if only simply as a pushback protest to the disruption in their lives that all of this enmity and these demonstrations have caused.
They will have a similar opportunity in all the many elections going on around the world this year, but that message will be diffused by all of the other issues at stake.
By voting for Israel, whatever their particular views and feelings about Israel and the war, was the only time they could make a strong and unequivocal statement that they have had enough of all the disruption and fear being foisted on the world.
