Switzerland may have snatched the crown, and Croatia barely clinched the popular vote, but Israel bagged top points in the televote from the highest number of countries – including the ‘rest of the world’ – at the 2024 Eurovision. Voters in the U.K. were among the 14 countries that rewarded the extraordinarily brave Eden Golan with the maximum 12 points for her performance of ‘Hurricane’. The Daily Sceptic extends our heartfelt thanks to all our readers who voted to make sure the doom goblin and her army of hate pixies didn’t win! The Times of Israel has the story.
After months of calls for Israel to be banned from the international song contest, voters in 14 different countries – out of 37 that were eligible to vote – plus those in all non-participating nations as a group, handed the most possible points, 12, to the Jewish state. Overall, Israel’s Eden Golan finished fifth out of the 25 competitors in the Eurovision grand final this year.
Ultimately, Israel got top marks from voters in Australia, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, San Marino, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, plus the “rest of the world” aggregate. It also got 10 points, the second-highest possible, from Albania, Austria, Cyprus, Czechia, Moldova, Slovenia and even Ireland, considered by many to be one of the most anti-Israel countries in Europe.
Overall, Israel received 323 televote points, just behind Croatia’s 337 points, and ahead of Ukraine’s 307 points from the public. Croatia got top marks from nine countries and Ukraine from seven.
Israel did notably less well in the jury votes, in which each country presents the results of a group of musical professionals. It got just 52 points there, 12th overall, prompting some Israelis to decry the snub as political. Still, the country still ended up with more jury points than the U.K., Greece, Latvia, Cyprus, Lithuania, Serbia, Spain, Austria, Georgia, Slovenia, Norway, Finland and Estonia. …
Israel’s huge televote success came as an unwelcome surprise to the activists who had been trying for months to unsuccessfully have the country barred from the contest. During the jury vote awarding portion of the competition, Israel’s representative, Maya Alkulumbre, was loudly booed by some in the audience, and some even booed each time any country awarded any points to Israel.
How did the country considered a pariah by so many over its ongoing war against Hamas in Gaza end up so popular? There’s no real way to analyse the motivations of millions of voters – and the European Broadcasting Union doesn’t reveal how many people voted – but a few trends are clear to see.
The most obvious is that the loudest voices on the internet do not necessarily represent either the overall majority or the majority of those who decide to vote in a song contest. Months of frantic hysteria on social media and Reddit forums clearly do not translate to real-life votes. …
It is also much easier to vote in support of a country than against it – if anti-Israel activists didn’t rally around one particular contestant, and especially if they boycotted the vote, then their sentiments were not going to be counted.
Golan and Israel also ironically received a boycott boost – all the attention and media coverage of the controversy provided a much higher level of exposure to the song than in normal years. Some voters were also likely part of the backlash of those turned off by the pariah treatment given to the 20 year-old Golan by fans, Eurovision bloggers and even her fellow contestants.
Worth reading in full.
Stop Press: David Cameron has launched a stunning rebuke at the BBC for not labelling Hamas as ‘terrorists’.
Stop Press 2: Rent-a-protester Greta Thunberg was hauled away by cops as pro-Palestine demonstrators clashed with armed riot police outside the Eurovision final venue.
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