Eurovision Song Contest Warns Protesters: No Palestinian Flags

The organizers of the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest, in which Israel is participating, reiterated in a statement on Thursday that Palestinian flags are not permitted at the event, and staffers will remove them and any other “symbols, clothing, items, and banners” deemed inappropriate.

The Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) is an annual event in which participating countries — in 2024, 37 nations, including some non-European countries, such as Israel, Australia, and Armenia — submit an original song and accompanying musical performance. Countries vote, using judges and call-in votes from the public, for the best song and which country will host next year’s edition of the event. Created in the aftermath of World War II as a means of using culture to rebuild ties among European states, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which hosts the competition, adheres to a strict “no politics” policy for participants.

“The ESC is a non-political event,” the official contest rules read. “All Participating Broadcasters, including the Host Broadcaster, shall be responsible … to make sure that the ESC shall in no case be politicized and/or instrumentalized and/or otherwise brought into disrepute in any way.”

The ban on politics applies to performers, song lyrics, hosts, special guests, and displays among crowd participants.

As a result of winning controversially in 2023 after losing the popular vote to Finland, Sweden is hosting 2024’s Eurovision Song Contest. The event will take place in the city of Malmö, which is home to one of the largest Muslim populations in the country and has experienced a surge in Islamist activity in recent memory. Anti-Israel groups have announced preparations to organize mass protests against Israel’s participation in the contest in anticipation of the event.

The Eurovision Song Contest takes place in three rounds: two semi-finals — scheduled to take place on May 7 and 9 — and the “Grand Final,” which will take place on May 11.

Asked by the Associated Press about the possibility of attendees bringing Palestinian flags into the contest to protest Israel, EBU communications head Michelle Roverelli reiterated that the only flags allowed at Eurovision are those of participating countries and the rainbow flag associated with gay rights (the Associated Press did not specify if that includes updated flags to represent all LGBTQIAP2S+ people or just the flag featuring only a rainbow).

“Palestine” is not a country and does not participate in the Eurovision Song Contest.

Roverelli told the Associated Press that EBU organizers may “remove any other flags or symbols, clothing, items and banners being used for the likely purpose of instrumentalizing the TV shows.”

The rule is not an update; the EBU has banned the Palestinian flag for years. The flag became an issue in 2019 when Israel hosted the contest as a reigning champion, and the band representing Iceland, Hatari, appeared on camera holding scarves featuring the flag and reading “Palestine.” The EBU fined the Icelandic public broadcaster in charge of organizing its presence at the song contest, though it did not disclose how much.

Israel’s presence at the tournament has triggered heightened outrage in 2024 in the aftermath of the country suffering an unprecedented terrorist attack on October 7, 2023, in which terrorists with the Palestinian jihadist organization Hamas invaded the country and engaged in a rampage of rape, torture, mass killing, and desecration of corpses. Hamas terrorists, including United Nations employees, killed an estimated 1,200 people in the attack.

Israel responded to the attack by launching a self-defense military operation in the Gaza Strip, which Hamas governs. The operation triggered a groundswell of international outrage, most prominently from Islamist groups and leftist sympathizers. The anger reached Eurovision in February when a group of more than 1,000 Swedish artists demanded that the EBU ban Israel from the contest.

“We believe that by allowing Israel’s participation, the EBU is demonstrating a remarkable double standard that undermines its credibility,” the letter the artists signed read. “Allowing Israel to participate undermines not only the spirit of the contest but the entire public service mission. It also sends the signal that governments can commit war crimes without consequences.”

Israel initially intended to address the world in the contest with an homage to the victims of the October terrorist attack titled “October Rain,” but EBU officials deemed the song’s lyrics too political and required the writers to revise the track. The EBU reportedly objected in particular to lyrics reading, “They were all good children, each one of them,” a reference to the children, including infants, that Hamas massacred.

Artist Eden Golan will be performing a modified version of the song, titled “Hurricane,” in Malmö that retains the music and many of the lyrics of the original “October Rain.”

Swedish law enforcement authorities have deemed the Eurovision Song Contest a “priority target” for terrorists and have vowed to implement high-level security measures to protect attendees. In addition to pro-Palestinian activists calling for mass protests on the days of the contest to object to Israel’s song, Euronews noted that police had revealed a group was planning to burn a copy of the Quran before the song contest. The report did not clarify if the Quran burning is meant to be related to the Israel protests or a separate anti-Islamic statement.

“The security is going to be rigorous,” Petra Stenkula, head of the police area in Malmö, reportedly told Swedish television, according to Euronews.

The government of Israel issued a warning to its citizens on Thursday to generally avoid the event in an apparent vote of no confidence to Swedish authorities. The Israeli National Security Council cited Malmö’s reputation as “an anti-Israel protest hub” where assemblies “are often violent, and include calls to harm Jews and Israelis, flag burning etc.”

“In light of this, the National Security Council (NSC) has raised the travel alert level for the city of Malmö (with no change to the rest of Sweden) from level 2 (potential threat) to level 3 (moderate threat),” the announcement read, “and recommends that Israelis planning to visit the city re-assess the necessity of travelling at this time.”