May 27, 2025 – Dr. Susanna Kokkonen
If I had to give this text a title, I think I would call it “When a song is not just a song”.
For in Europe the Month of May is always a month when many people look forward to the annual Eurovision Song Contest. Eurovision is a song contest coordinated by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) with member states sending their singers to participate and a global audience of millions watching. The contest is supposed to be about various and diverse music styles as well as cultural backgrounds and presentations.
But in the past two years it has been extremely concerning that the event has had so much anti-Jewish, anti-Israel activity around it. Last year as well as this year there were demonstrations outside the arena. Also, inside the contest when the Israeli singer was singing there were hostile calls to end her performance, boos and other terrible things.
Here I am offering you a view from Europe where the contest took place.
To make a long story short there was much talk in advance of this year’s competition of Israel being disqualified from the competition. Some of the other singers and artists were asking for this. The reason offered was Gaza and the many accusations against Israel in that regard. Israel was however allowed to participate and sent a singer Yuval Raphael, a 24-year-old woman who survived the Nova festival massacre by hiding under the bodies of her friends.
The Israeli song was a beautiful ballad. There was even a Bible verse from the Song of Songs included. The name of the song is “A New Day Will Rise” and you can find it on YouTube.
I have to say that many of the other songs were not interesting at all for their musical input. Many of the performers were dressed inappropriately and overall, the whole context has become less and less about good music and more about the show. This is often based on playing on the basest themes of human life.
Last year as well as now juries did not give Israel many points at all. But there is also a vote where each viewer can vote except for their own country. Last year to everyone’s surprise Israel received a lot of public votes. This caught many by surprise. This year it happened again, and us, friends of Israel, showed our colors as Israel finished second in the contest.
Had the story ended this way it would be all well and good.
But sadly, in my own country of Finland some media and broadcasters have started a disgusting campaign against Israel’s result. They are trying to influence the EBU to change the Eurovision voting practices. They are claiming that Israel only won so many votes because of a big campaign done by some unseen people on behalf of them. To me these smells of antisemitism are clear.
There is an ancient conspiracy theory claiming that the Jewish people have this unseen power that they are yielding and that they cannot be trusted. These antisemitic accusations always surface in different forms in a slightly different variation. Things do not end here because I made a video clip about this all urging the Finnish broadcasters to stop this hostile campaign. The horrible commentary since then shows how much the public has been taken by the unfair media coverage. They believe all the lies that come out about and against Israel.
Again, this whole debacle shows that antisemitism is anti-Israel and vice-versa. There is no one else to fight it. We need to stand up and stop this before it is too late!
“For evil to flourish it only requires for good men to do nothing.”
-Simon Wiesenthal
