During the performance of the Israeli representative in Eurovision, there was a huge noise: the audience whistled in the arena

During the second semi-final, Eden Golan, a 20-year-old representative of Israel, entered the stage at number fourteen, performing the piece “Hurricane” on stage.

During almost the entire piece, there was a lot of noise in the Malmö Arena – applause mixed with whistling.

Whistles and cheers were also heard during the dress rehearsal, when Eden Golan appeared.

The decision of Eurovision organizers incites passions

Israel’s participation in this year’s “Eurovision” contest has been causing great passion for several months.

The country has been urged to slam the door on the tender due to the war in Gaza, as was done to Russia when it invaded Ukraine. However, in the end, the organizers allowed Israel to participate in the contest, which caused great outrage among fans of the event.

The Eurovision Song Contest is a non-political musical event in which public service broadcasters – ETS members – compete. This is not a competition between governments,” ETS CEO Noel Curran said in a press release.

On top of all that, the Israeli song was initially found to contain references to the victims of the Hamas attack on southern Israel that sparked the war in the Gaza Strip.

Eurovision rules strictly prohibit political content, so the country’s representative Eden Golan had to change the words of the song.

A protest before the second semi-final of Eurovision

On the afternoon of May 9, a couple of hours before the second semi-final, Malmö was restless – a large group of people gathered in the city’s main square to protest against Israel’s military actions in the Gaza Strip and the decision of the Eurovision organizers to allow the country to participate in the contest.

Protest in Malmö against Israel’s participation in Eurovision

(11 photos)

Protest in Malmö against Israel’s participation in Eurovision (photo: tv3.lt)