From the snipers stationed around the Malmö Arena to the rigid expression of the ‘Eurofans’ when the word Israel is put on the table, Eurovision 2024 has seen how bloody offensive in Gaza It has not deviated from its course, but it has uncovered many of its seams.

One of the principles of this festival in its 68 editions and now more questioned than ever is that it is about an “apolitical” meeting of a musical nature. “United by music”, in fact reads this year’s slogan. “They try to maintain this façade that there are no political messages, but in reality Israel is scoring many political points with its participation and, clearly, alluding to apoliticism is a political act in itself,” Adam Stund, told EFE. of the association Allt åt alla (Everything for everyone).

He comments on it during a small silent protest with Palestinian flags At Malmö central station, just six activists and almost the same number of police officers to guard. The reinforcement of security is evident in some crucial points of the city, Sweden’s third largest city, with about 360,000 inhabitants, which has closed avenues, security arches in hotels and divers examining the canals.

Malmö stands out for its demographic and cultural diversity, with a significant presence of population of Arab origin. Israeli media have called it the most anti-Semitic city in Europe for years, supported by recurring complaints from the Jewish community.

That image has been amplified in recent weeks and the Israeli authorities have raised the level of alert for travelers to go to the city due to the possibility of Islamist groups carrying out an attack, while the local Jewish community has reported an increase in anti-Semitic episodes.

Already last week, according to the Israeli news site ‘Ynet’, the head of Israel’s Shin Bet security agency, Ronen Bar, took a “very unusual” trip to Malmö to coordinate the security of the Israeli participants against possible “provocations” by ‘Eurofans’ against their representative, Eden Golan, who will sing this Thursday in the second semi-final.

His ostracism does not go unnoticed. He did not participate in any of the promotional parties held in Europe in the previous months and several delegations from other countries have told EFE that these days They have hardly had any contact with her either.. She did not even participate in the opening ceremony on the 5th, justifying it by saying that she was at an event for Holocaust Remembrance Day.

The EBU has been firm in its decision to keep Israel in the contestdespite those who see a Comparative grievance with the case of Russiaexpelled in 2022 after the invasion of ukraine. “Their suspension was due to persistent violations of their obligations as members of the EBU,” he justified. “The relationship between (Israeli television) ‘KAN’ and the Israeli government are drastically different, with the Israeli government trying to close the public broadcaster in recent years,” the EBU insisted.

It is also true that the organizing committee rejected the first two songs presented due to their political references to the Hamas attacks last October. His definitive proposal, ‘Hurricane’, is a metaphor about resilience facing inclemencies of an ambiguous nature.

Several sources allege, however, “economic and geopolitical reasons” to maintain Israel. The newspaper ‘La Marea’ claims that the main sponsor of Eurovision, a well-known cosmetics brand, was founded in Israel in 2007. Before the doors of the Malmö Arena, the enthusiasm among the ‘Eurofans’ overcomes their particular opinions.

None of those surveyed by EFE see notable differences compared to other editions, but a pattern is repeated: his sudden grimace of seriousness when mentioning the word ‘Israel’ and even his refusal to identify himself. And for this Thursday a large demonstration has been called that plans to bring together 20,000 people in the center of Malmö, far from the Malmö Arena, in favor of the exclusion of Israel.

This Tuesday, one of the stars of his first semi-final, the Swedish-Palestinian Eric Saade (third in the 2011 edition) decided to show a Palestinian scarf during his performance. A gesture censored by Ebba Adielsson, executive producer of the festival, in statements to the Swedish media, while the EBU regretted that Saade “has chosen to ignore the apolitical nature of the event.”

“My father gave me that handkerchief when I was a little boy, to never forget where our family came from. I didn’t know that one day they would call him a ‘political symbol,'” the aforementioned responded. A few hours earlier, a young man with the Palestinian flag and his face covered was seen in front of the doors of the Malmö Arena: “Right now an attack is taking place without precedents in Rafah and there is a great risk that Eurovision will whitewash complaints about ethnic cleansing and genocide (…). “They call Eurovision ‘united by music’, but it’s the opposite, everything is very divided right now.”