Just hours before this year's Eurovision Song Contest final began in Malmo, Sweden on Saturday, around 5,000 pro-Palestinian protesters marched through the city center to protest Israel's entry into the competition.
Protesters waved huge Palestinian flags and were joined by drummers chanting “Eurovision, you can’t hide.” They chanted slogans such as “You support genocide” and “Freedom, free Palestine.”
The protest, which came two days after a similar march in Malmo in which Swedish police said about 12,000 people participated, was the latest sign of dissatisfaction among some Eurovision fans with Israel's participation in the high-profile contest due to the war in Gaza.
At Eurovision, singers representing their countries compete for the votes of music industry judges and TV viewers. Although not part of Europe, Israel has participated in the competition since 1973 and has won four times.
For months, pro-Palestinian groups have been urging Eurovision's organizer, the European Broadcasting Union, to ban Israel from the competition. Thousands of musicians, including pop stars and former Eurovision contestants, signed a petition saying there was precedent for Israel being excluded from the event. Eurovision 2022 banned Russia after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The European Broadcasting Union has repeatedly dismissed such comparisons and said Eurovision is a non-political contest that aims to unite music fans, not divide them.
At Saturday's protest, musician Roy Moghari, 39, who wore a hoodie in the colors of the Palestinian flag, said the Israeli government was a “murderer.” He wanted Saturday's finalists to make pro-Palestinian statements on stage and “tell the truth about Palestine,” he said.
Compared to pro-Palestinian student protests on university campuses in the United States, where police made many arrests, the Malmö protest was peaceful, with few police officers seen next to the marchers and little disruption downtown.
No arrests were made at Saturday's march, a police spokeswoman said in an email.
Ulf Biereld, an expert on Swedish-Middle East relations at the University of Gothenburg, said in a phone interview that many Swedes sympathized with the protesters. Bjereld said there was “very strong dissatisfaction” in Swedish society about Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip.
Anti-Semitic hate crimes have increased in Sweden since Israel invaded the Gaza Strip on October 7, when Hamas-led attacks are believed to have killed about 1,200 people, according to data from Sweden's National Council for Crime Prevention. They say they did it. The organization said in its latest report that 110 incidents occurred between October and December 2023. This is an increase from 24 cases in the same period last year.
Malmö is a city of approximately 360,000 people, a third of whom were born outside Sweden, including those from the Middle East. Pro-Palestinian protests have occurred regularly here and in other Swedish cities over the past five months.
Saturday's march also included members of Jewish Uproar, a small Jewish activist group protesting Israel's actions in the Gaza Strip. Member Elias Rose Gordon, 23, wearing a skull cap in the colors of the Palestinian flag, said it was “hypocritical” that Eurovision had allowed Israel to participate despite banning Russia.
The pro-Palestinian displays were not limited to downtown Malmo on Saturday. According to Steve Baylis (60), a British Eurovision fan who attended the event, attendees gathered on the floor of Malmo Arena during the rehearsal for the Eurovision final waved two Palestinian flags. Security guards quickly removed the items, Baileys added. (Eurovision did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but said attendees were not allowed to wave banners bearing Palestinian flags or slogans about the war between Israel and Hamas.)
Slimane, representing France, stopped singing during rehearsal and called for peace. “I’m sorry, but I’m not good at English,” he said. “Every artist here wants to sing about love and peace.”