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Finnish Music Community Challenges Israel’s Place in 2024 Eurovision Song Contest Amid Hamas War

The petition’s initiator reportedly referred to Israel violating human rights during the now-four month battle with Hamas militants following their Oct. 7 attack.

According to The Guardian, the Finnish musicians have joined an earlier effort by Icelandic artists to ban Israel from this year’s competition, slated to be held in the Swedish city of Malmö in May. To date, the Israeli military’s response has reportedly killed more than 23,000 people in Gaza — the majority of whom the territory’s health ministry has said were women and children — in a war that Israel’s prime minister has said will not end until it has eliminated the threat from the militant group. According tothe BBC, local Finnish broadcaster YLE had previously sought to draw a distinction between the Russian war of aggression and Israel’s response to the Hamas attack, with YLE rep Ville Vilén recently saying that “As gruesome as it is, [Israel-Hamas] is not a war of inter-state aggression like between Russia and Ukraine.” The Finnish musician who began the petition, reportedly told local paper Hufvudstadsbladet that Israel “violates human rights” and that “we don’t think it’s okay for the country to be part of the Song Contest to polish its image.”

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