As someone who grew up in Toronto, watching the European Song Contest was not relevant or popular at the level that it is for Israelis. Yet, the Eurovision finals are treated like a national holiday on this side of the world. Groups get together and host viewing parties for the competition, where we all collectively sit and root for our tiny Jewish state.
This year was an incredibly emotional one related to the competition, and the lesson we learned is that the public does not stand for vicious pro-terror mobs that bully Israelis.
At first, Israel's Eurovision representative Eden Golan was told that the original version of its submission, "October Rain," was too political. Israel's team was forced to change the title and lyrics. We as a nation were then forced to endure months of calls for Israel to be banned from the singing competition.
Leading up to the competition, when media outlets announced that Golan was warned not to leave her hotel, that very moment reminded me of the Munich Massacre, in which 11 Israeli athletes were murdered in the 1972 Munich Olympics by the Black September terror group while the entire world televised the incident. It was a scary moment that in the international arena, we are never safe to be publicly Israeli or Jewish.
Eden continued to be subjected to abuse by having to stay trapped in her hotel while an angry mob of thousands of protesters were stationed outside her hotel. She required numerous armed police escorts to the Eurovision venue, a measure befitting a world leader. The 20-year-old singer was booed during the rehearsals (all because she comes from a country that dares to defend itself against a terror group). She was also mocked and bullied by other contestants and journalists; one Polish journalist even asked, "Have you ever thought that by being here you bring risk for other participants and the public?" It is a genuinely disgusting question meant to gaslight and blame the victim.
The biased Eurovision juries were no better, as not one country's jury was comfortable enough to award Israel the full 12 points. A generous attribution would be that there was fear of receiving backlash from the public despite the competition's rules prohibiting discrimination based on nationality or political views.
The moment that the Eurovision hosts announced the public votes that came in for Israel was decisive. Watching how biased and unfairly Israel was treated, to then hearing the hosts announce that Israel received 323 votes by televote and watching Israel shoot to the top of the list was the real victory. Fifteen countries by televote placed Israel first, including voters in Australia, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, San Marino, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Britain, and the "rest of the world" category. It also got 10 points, the second-highest possible, from Albania, Austria, Cyprus, Czechia, Moldova, Slovenia, and even Ireland (one of the most anti-Israel countries in Europe).
The Eurovision competition this year showed once again how Israel is "the Jew among the nations." Watching how grown adults treated Eden in the crowd, on stage, and in public by an antisemitic mob for no other reason than her place of national origin, meant that we all felt the world's antisemitism. Yet to then have witnessed how the public came to Israel's support showed us that Israel has allies all over the world which showed the elite jury (and even world leaders and policymakers) that they won't give in to antisemites who bully and harass a 20-year-old girl for being Jewish.
While Israel did not take home the gold, to me, beating and persevering over the antisemites who tried to boycott us is the real victory.
