The musician was seen wearing a keffiyeh on his arm, a symbol commonly used to show support for Palestine.

In reponse, a representative of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) said in a statement: “All performers are made aware of the rules of the contest, and we regret that Eric Saade chose to compromise the non-political nature of the event.”

Despite facing criticism for its decision not to exclude Israel and worldwide protests condemning the organizers’ choice, the competition maintained its stance.

“Politics does influence the event from time to time,” said Paul Jordan, a contest enthusiast and researcher who was part of its communications team from 2015 to 2018, in an interview with CNN.

However, he noted, “the presence of Israel has become such a big issue (that) I think it’s going to overshadow the event.”

The news comes during Israel’s seizure and closure of the Rafah crossing in Gaza, which has raised concerns that already-scarce food and medical supplies will be further depleted and lead to a “catastrophic” humanitarian disaster.

    • Linkerbaan@lemmy.worldOP
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      6 months ago

      I read this dumb " if israel wanted to destroy Gaza all the houses would be rubble" meme for the last time a few months ago.

      Now that almost every home has been destroyed I didn’t expect someone to be stupid enough to bring it up again.

      • A'random Guy@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        Its true that 70 percent or so has been destroyed but not all. You’ll just have to ask hamas to rebuild homes instead of tunnels. My point stands that if Israel wanted it flat it would be scrub and rocks.

        • Linkerbaan@lemmy.worldOP
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          6 months ago

          Broooo it’s just 70% lmaooo Like just 2 in 3 houses has been destroyed!!! That’s not 3 out of 3!

          You’re right tough, if israel just flattens all of Gaza and destroys all but 1 house then nobody could say that israel tried to destroy everything. Because there would be 1 house standing!

          I wonder why I didn’t think of that before.

          • A'random Guy@lemmy.world
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            6 months ago

            Yes. It could have been much worse, and I am still not exaggerating, it’s you, eternally moving goal posts. It’s a terrible situation that your propaganda source loves fanning