Finnish Artists Start Petition To Ban Israel From Eurovision Song Contest: More Than 1,400 Signatures
Israel’s position in the 2024 edition of the Eurovision Song Contest is being put into question by Finnish artists, as a petition to ban the state from participating in the competition is being circulated.
The petition has been signed by over 1,400 artists, and is asking for the removal of Israel from the song contest, due to the country’s alleged “war crimes”.
The signatories want the Finnish public broadcaster YLE to withdraw Finland’s submission from this year’s edition of the European Song Contest if the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) fails to take action.
After Russia had announced a full-scale invasion on Ukraine in 2022, the country was banned from participating in the competition by European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the organisers of the contest.
The Finnish broadcaster was among those who spearheaded to movement to remove Russia from the competition following the attack.
Authors of the petition have accused the Finnish broadcaster of double standards since they expect “the same active defending of values from YLE now as well.”
In December the EBU released a statement saying that Eurovision was “for broadcasters – not for governments” and Israel had taken part for 50 years.
It said member organisations had agreed that Israel’s public broadcaster Kan “complies with all competition rules” and insisted the contest was a “non-political event”.
Among the signatories of the petition are Finnish artists Olavi Uusivirta, Paleface and Axel Ehnström, who represented Finland in Eurovision 2011 under the name Paradise Oskar.
Last month, Icelandic musicians made similar demands to broadcaster Rúv.
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