to the cry of Free Palestine and loud boos. This is how they received the Israeli representative, Eden Golan, at the rehearsals for the second Eurovision semi-final. A protest that the organization has tried to silence by editing the video with fake applause. For security reasons, Golan has not attended any festival events.

Given the support for Palestine that is spreading among ‘Eurofans’, there are “provocations” as described by Netanyahu’s Government. In fact, Israel has sent another delegation to Malmö that has nothing to do with music. He is a top security chief, something they admit is “very unusual.” This figure oversees an impressive display that, among other measures, has up to snipers on the roofs.

At every step, between poster and poster, tulip and tulip, there are also police, armed agents, milkmaids and control arches who have been supported with reinforcements from other countries. So almost as much, or more, than a song festival, this year’s Eurovision looks like a security and weapons fair.

Given the large pro-Palestinian demonstration called for this Friday in the center of the Swedish capital, Israel advises against traveling and has even raised the alert level. In fact, Israel considers Malmö to be “the most anti-Semitic city in Europe” due to its significant Arab population, which is actually very diverse. The message has resonated so much among some of his ‘Eurofans’ that one of them claims that “the wave of hate is so big that you can almost touch it”, They even reaffirm being “depressed” for this reason.

Israel, precisely, has had to change its song –they are going for the third version– because it was too strong in political terms. It is not that the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) has turned against them, but that it has also censored the host country’s own contestant for ‘customize’ your ‘outfit’ with a Palestinian shawl.

Given the controversy unleashed, Eric Saade argued that his “father gave him that shawl when he was little, so he would never forget where the family comes from.” The Swedish artist added that “I didn’t know that one day it would be considered a ‘political symbol'” so he dismisses all this as “just racism.”

It also escapes few that the official sponsor – and therefore, supporters of the party – is Moroccanoil which, despite mentioning Morocco, is Israeli. This Thursday we celebrate the second semi-final and Eurovision 2024 sounds like a festival of controversy, despite being considered an apolitical event and whose motto is “United by music.”