MOSCOW, February 7Israel will be able to participate in the Eurovision 2024 music competition, which will be held this year in the Swedish city of Malmo, NBC News reported, citing the organizer of the competition.
Earlier, the Spanish left-wing party Podemos (We Can) published a letter to the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), in which almost 30 MEPs called for the same standards to be applied to Israel as to Russia in the framework of the music competition «Eurovision 2024». The authors of the letter recalled that Russia’s participation in the competition was vetoed after the start of a special military operation in Ukraine in 2022.
«»The country (Israel — ed.) will be allowed to take part, since the state broadcaster KAN has complied with all the rules of this year's competition and will be able to participate, as in the last 50 years,” the channel quoted EBU Director General Noel Curran as saying.
According to the channel, Curran also said that it is very difficult to compare different conflicts, this is “not the task” of his organization.
Earlier in January, more than 1.4 thousand representatives of the Finnish music industry signed a petition to national broadcaster Yle demanding influence on the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and ban Israel from participating in the music competition.
In December 2023, the Icelandic publication Iceland Review reported that the local association of composers and songwriters had asked the national broadcaster not to take part in Eurovision 2024 if Israel were among the participants.
Last July, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) announced that the Swedish city of Malmö would host the Eurovision 2024 music contest. Malmo has previously hosted Eurovision in 1992 and 2013.
On October 7, Israel was subjected to an unprecedented-scale rocket attack from the Gaza Strip as part of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, announced by the military wing of the Palestinian Hamas movement. After this, the organization’s fighters entered the border areas in southern Israel, where they opened fire on both military and civilians, and also took more than 200 hostages. In Israel, according to the latest data from the authorities, about 1.2 thousand people were killed, this number includes civilians, soldiers, foreign citizens and workers, and it was also reported that more than 5 thousand were injured.
In response, the Israel Defense Forces launched Operation Iron Swords against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Within a few days, the Israeli military took control of all populated areas near the border with Gaza and began carrying out air strikes on targets, including civilians, in the strip. Israel also announced a complete blockade of the Gaza Strip: the supply of water, food, electricity, medicine, and fuel was stopped. At the end of October, the ground phase of the Israeli operation in the enclave began. Gaza City was surrounded by Israeli ground forces, and the enclave was effectively divided into southern and northern parts.
The number of victims of Israeli shelling of the Gaza Strip since October 7 has exceeded 27 thousand, more than 66 thousand people were injured.
Hamas claimed that there were about 200-250 hostages in the Gaza Strip. After the end of the truce, Israeli authorities announced that 126 Israelis and 11 foreigners remained hostage from Hamas, and 110 abducted were released.
The Russian Foreign Ministry called on the parties to stop hostilities. According to the position of Russian President Vladimir Putin, the settlement of the Middle East crisis is possible only on the basis of a “two-state” formula approved by the UN Security Council, which provides for the creation of an independent Palestinian state within the 1967 borders with its capital in East Jerusalem.
The Palestinian-Israeli conflict, related to the territorial interests of the parties, has been a source of tension and clashes in the region for many decades. A UN decision with the active role of the USSR in 1947 determined the creation of two states — Israel and Palestine, but only the Israeli one was created.
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