Eurovision 2024 - Why I Shall Not Be Watching · 7:30am May 7th
Today, the Eurovision Song Contest 2024's semi-finals are held; three rounds to go until the finals on May 11th.
Eurovision as a whole goes on a lot longer than for three days, but it is during those three days that the majority of people tune in, turn on their television sets, laptops or smartphones to watch a bunch of people dressed up in various crimes against fashion sing and dance riotously.
Every year, Eurovision as a competition has always been, in a word, seriously naff. Every year, Eurovision has also always been a time to unwind, check one's brain at the door and, on the threshold of Summer, let loose and have fun. One year, even, in 2022, Eurovision managed to provide a genuinely heartwarming gesture, by offering the country of Ukraine a chance to very briefly fly away from its troubles and make a win.
Great. I know that I had fun in past years. If you're watching Eurovision this year, hope you have fun; I won't be watching.
Ask me why. Although, in all likelihood, the reason is already known.
- Mass graves in Gaza: what do we know? | Reuters
- Why hasn’t the US called for an investigation into mass graves in Gaza? | Arwa Mahdawi | The Guardian
- Uncommitted voters are not apathetic. The Democratic party is | Camonghne Felix | The Guardian
History may not repeat, but it sure rhymes, doesn't it? At this point, we've reached a stage where a refusal to single out the parallels with the greatest crime committed against the Jewish people themselves in the twentieth century is pure self-delusion. Or, to put it more succinctly -- that's some true Nazi shit right there.*
Just remember. I may not have posted a journal on October 07th of last year, when Hamas' terrorist attack killed a thousand civilians in several Gaza kibbutz settlements, including people attending a music festival in Re'im. The scope of it was too big for me. But it will be attested that on this day, my sympathies went towards the Israeli people and the lives they'd lost.
One month later, I did not know what to say. I recall writing "Maybe it is proper that I be measured in what I say". My opinion has changed a little since then.
Eurovision had, for a moment, contemplated banning Israel from entering this year. That they didn't is moral cowardice.
~Vox
*
But don't take my word for it. The director of The Zone of Interest, Jonathan Glazer, took care of that during his acceptance speech at the Academy Awards. Glazer is himself of Ashkenazi Jewish descent, his ancestors having fled the Kishinev progrom in the Bessarabia Governorate of the Russian Empire, territory which now belongs to Ukraine.
The Zone of Interest, which I've seen, though I didn't write about it as I did Alex Garland's Civil War, is a film about the banality of evil in its rawest form. Not simply looking away from horror; living right next to it, and not batting an eye, while we pursue our happy lives.
The difference in how Russia and Israel are treated despite being aggressors in their respective conflicts is a glaring example of Western hypocrisy.
Excellent write-up, mate.
Big agree with all points.
Very much agree with you.
I waited, as I sometimes do, 5779697, 5779698, 5779708, to see if there'd be any further comments, before replying to them all in one collective go.
When I see such news, one phrase haunts me, a line from Independence Day, of all things. As said by Judd Hirsch, playing a very Jewish character;
It deserves to become its own meme.