Israel’s participation in Eurovision 2024 is controversial due to the war against Hamas. Despite calls for boycotts, Israeli candidate Eden Golan is one of the big favorites.
First performances under boos and “Free Palestine”. Eden Golan, the singer representing Israel this year at Eurovision, is facing huge controversy due to the war against Hamas. If the Eurovision teams insist that the competition is not political, some have called for the withdrawal of Israel from the competition, in the same way as Russia in 2022 after the invasion of Ukraine. The organizer of the competition had explained that it had sanctioned the Russian public broadcaster two years ago because it had violated the criteria necessary to maintain its status as an active member of the association and that KAN, the Israeli public channel had committed no offense and could therefore maintain his participation.
A controversy which gained momentum at the time of the submission of the song “October Rain”, an explicit reference to the October 7 attack perpetrated by Hamas, and whose lyrics were modified due to their overly political connotations . Instead, the Jewish state decided to focus on “Hurricane” which Eden Golan defends on stage, despite a pro-Palestine demonstration which brought together 12,000 people in Malmö, Sweden, Thursday May 9.
During her semi-final performance on Thursday in Malmö, the young singer was the target of whistles. Thanks to her song, Eden Golan managed to qualify for the final and join the group of 26 countries who will compete for victory on Saturday May 11. An accomplishment which allowed him to climb to second place among the favorites, according to bookmakers, with a 19% chance of victory. Eden Golan is only ahead of Baby Lasagna, the Croatian candidate, who has been at the top of the ranking for several weeks.
A good dynamic which is also due to a blunder by Italian television. The transalpine country accidentally revealed its voting percentages via RAI. A practice prohibited by Eurovision rules. Thus, nearly 40% of the votes of Italian viewers went to the Israeli song. A lead which could suggest a large score on the day of the final.