In Malmö, the host city of the Eurovision Song Contest, there are demonstrations this week against Israel’s participation in the song contest. The police have prepared for events with extensive security measures. According to the organizers of the demonstrations, the demonstrations are peaceful.
In the sea breeze dozens of Palestinian flags fly.
An estimated hundreds of protesters gathered on Wednesday afternoon to greet the Handala ship at Malmö’s Ångbåtbro harbor area. Since the beginning of May, Handala has been traveling from Norway to Malmö via several ports in Sweden.
The Ship to Gaza demonstration is part of the demonstrations organized in Malmö, the host city of the Eurovision Song Contest, which oppose Israel’s participation in the contest and Israel’s military actions in Gaza.
The ship’s goal is to travel from Malmö, through Denmark and Germany to the Mediterranean and all the way to Gaza by the end of August, says a member of the ship’s crew Trond Zweidorff. The trip to Gaza requires guarantees from Israel that the ship will not be attacked.
“That is our dream, vision and goal,” says Zweidorff.
According to Zweidorff, the crew of the Handala ship includes around 10-17 activists and cultural influencers from different parts of Europe. The crew changes along the way. Zweidorff has traveled by ship from Norway to Sweden and continues his journey through Denmark to Germany.
Since the beginning of May, the Handala ship has been traveling from Norway to Malmö via several ports in Sweden.
Handala crew member Trond Zweidorff.
Port area there are two police cars parked around. Organizer of the Ship to Gaza protest and spokeswoman for the Stoppa Israel campaign Yomn Kadoura however, the atmosphere has been very calm.
“Love and solidarity. Nothing can stop us from standing in solidarity,” says Kadoura.
According to Kadoura, the demonstrations are attended by a large number of assembled demonstrators and law enforcers. According to him, the atmosphere before large demonstrations is calm.
“There are many of us and we gather together in solidarity for peace and freedom,” says Kadoura.
However, according to Yomn Kadoura, the organizer of the Ship to Gaza protest and spokesman for the Stoppa Israel campaign, the atmosphere has been very calm.
The big ones demonstration marches will take place in Malmö on Thursday 9 May and on the day of the Eurovision finals on Saturday 11 May. According to the organizers of the Stoppa Israel campaign, representatives of 67 different organizations will participate in the marches.
According to the estimates of the police and organizers, a total of up to 40,000 demonstrators are expected at the marches.
“I’m not worried. The protest is peaceful. We have clear instructions on how to behave in our demonstration,” says a member of the Stoppa Israel campaign management team and spokesman Pia Jacobsen.
Pia Jacobsen
Jacobsen’s according to the organizers of the demonstrations, they have cooperated closely with the Malmö police before the demonstrations. According to him, there is a consensus among all the organizations participating in the Stoppa Israel campaign on how to act in a peaceful demonstration.
“I hope and believe that people will respect it for the sake of the Palestinians. [–] Obviously, there may be individuals involved who do things that we cannot control. We want to stage a peaceful demonstration, that’s our goal,” says Jacobsen.
According to Jacobsen, the reason for the protests is simply that Israel’s participation in the Eurovision Song Contest is wrong.
“In our opinion, it is completely unreasonable that Israel is allowed to participate in the competition at the same time as genocide is taking place. You can’t drop bombs and throw glitter at the same time,” says Jacobsen.
According to Jacobsen, the European broadcasting company Ebu has itself made the occasion political.
Before Accepting Israel to the competition, Ebu shelved the song of the country’s representative, Eden Golan October Rain because of its supposed political nature. The song’s name and lyrics were eventually changed. The melody remained the same, but the name changed Hurricane.
Israel’s public broadcasting company Kan said in a statement that the country’s president Isaac Herzog had demanded “necessary changes” so that Israel would not be left out of the spring Eurovision. Visiting researcher at the University of the Arts Janne Mäkelä assesses in Helsingin Sanomat that the country’s representative article is still “very political”.
Palestinian flags fly in the center of Malmö on several houses.
The shelter road in the center of Malmö was painted with the colors of the Palestinian flag.
Ebu has banned the bringing of Palestinian flags to the Eurovision venue Malmö Arena. According to Ebu, those who bought a ticket to the Eurovision Song Contest are only allowed to bring and display tickets representing the 37 participating countries. The only exceptions are rainbow tickets or other tickets representing sexual and gender minorities.
Already during the first moments of the opening show of the first semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest in Malmö, a “Palestinian scarf”, keffiyeh, was seen on the broadcast. The one who took the stage as the second performer of the opening number Eric Saade had wrapped the keffiyeh around her wrist. Saade’s father is a Palestinian born in Lebanon.
Picket also blame the city of Malmö for deciding to organize the event despite Israel’s participation.
Dagens Nyheterin newspaper by For weeks before the event, the city of Malmö has been removing posters from the street that oppose the organization of the Eurovision Song Contest in the city.
The cleanup took on new dimensions on Monday, May 6, when a company hired by the city of Malmö began to clean away political messages supporting the people of Gaza painted on a legal graffiti wall. The graffiti wall is located in Malmö’s Folkets Park.
Activists interrupted the cleaning work. According to Dagens Nyheter, the city of Malmö regrets what happened.
“Somewhere in a long chain, a wrong decision has been made to clean our graffiti boards in Folkets Park on false grounds,” says the manager of the street office Martin Lundin In an interview with Dagens Nyheter.
On Tuesday, new graffiti was painted on the graffiti wall.
Pro-Palestine paintings were painted on legal graffiti walls.
New pro-Palestine graffiti were painted in place of the old ones on the legal graffiti wall behind the Eurovision Village. According to the city of Malmö, the previous paintings were accidentally washed away.