Jerusalem backlash casts shadow over Eurovision contest

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Jerusalem backlash casts shadow over Eurovision contest

2018-06-23 12:48 Last Updated At：12:48

When the United States recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital, Israelis hoped other countries would follow suit. Instead, the move has created a backlash. The latest setback threatens the contested city's hopes of hosting the 2019 Eurovision song contest — an affair that has become something of a national obsession.

The Jerusalem recognition, warmly welcomed by Israel, appears to have triggered a series of unexpected diplomatic fiascos.

Earlier this month, Argentina pulled out of a highly anticipated exhibition soccer match with Israel after the government moved the game to Jerusalem. Britain's Prince William, set to visit next week, has listed Jerusalem's Old City as part of the "Occupied Palestinian Territories" on his schedule.

And now, the city's hopes for the beloved Eurovision finale are fading.

"There is a greater concern this year than any other year I can remember about the political backdrop surrounding Eurovision," said William Lee Adams, who runs a popular Eurovision blog. "Many Eurovision fans build their whole year around a trip to Eurovision, and just given the nature of what's going on their ideal has been tarnished."

Israel won Eurovision last month with a flashy pop tune called "Toy" by the charismatic, previously unknown singer Netta Barzilai, who dazzled viewers with her feminist lyrics, unconventional appearance and signature chicken dance. Her May 12 victory won Israel the right to host next year's Eurovision contest.

But the celebrations were tempered by continued bloodshed along the Gaza border, as well as the controversial move of the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem two days later.

More than 120 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire since weekly protests began in the Gaza Strip in March. Some 60 people were killed on May 14, marking a jarring contrast to the Israeli jubilation over the embassy move and the Eurovision victory.

Israel says it is defending its border against mass infiltrations by Palestinian militants. But the military has come under international criticism because of the large numbers of unarmed people shot by its troops.

Israel is also confronting an international activist group calling for boycotts against the Jewish state. Supporters say it's a way to promote Palestinian rights through nonviolent means, but Israel says the campaign masks a deeper aim of delegitimizing or even destroying the country.

The so-called BDS group — for Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions — has called on the European Broadcasting Union, the contest's sponsor, to boycott the Eurovision contest in Israel next year.

"This contest must be boycotted to avoid complicity and business-as-usual with this regime and to avoid irreversibly tarnishing the Eurovision brand with Israel's egregious human rights record," the group said.

Activists had targeted Barzilai and her song ahead of this year's contest with a campaign calling on voters to award her zero points. But win she did.

The winning country traditionally hosts the contest the following year. But exactly where the show will be held remains an open question.

In Europe, capital cities have usually played host. But the city Israel considers its capital — Jerusalem — is not recognized as such by most of the international community. Just two countries, Guatemala and Paraguay, have followed the U.S. and moved their embassies to Jerusalem.

Hosting the competition in Jerusalem could present a predicament for the public broadcasters that make up the European Broadcasting Union, sparking criticism that they are taking sides in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Israel is expected to present four cities as potential hosts, including Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

Israel captured east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war and annexed the area in a move that is not internationally recognized. Israel considers the entire city to be its capital, while the Palestinians seek east Jerusalem as the capital of a future state.

Israel held the Eurovision contest in Jerusalem following its previous victories, most recently in 1999, without incident. But following the snub by Argentina, Israel is backing off its insistence that the contest take place in the city next year.

Argentina canceled the much-awaited match just days before it was to be played, after Israel moved it from its original location in Haifa to Jerusalem, triggering angry Palestinian protests and calls for soccer fans to burn T-shirts of superstar Lionel Messi. Israel said Argentina had canceled because its players received threats from "terrorists."

Israel's outspoken culture and sports minister, Miri Regev, who was the driving force in moving the soccer match to Jerusalem, has also pushed to bring Eurovision to the holy city.

"The state of Israel has the right to decide where Eurovision will be held. I will recommend to the government and to the prime minister that it won't be right to host Eurovision if it will not be held in Jerusalem," Regev told Kan Bet radio.

Sensing that the Eurovision contest could see the same fate as the Argentina game, Israel has taken action to tone down what could be seen as the event's politicization.

After consulting with top aides, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu resolved that the government would not intervene in the event.

Israel's internal culture wars have also seeped into the Eurovision show, with an ultra-Orthodox member of Netanyahu's coalition government urging the government to prevent the sabbath from being violated. The finale usually takes place on a Saturday night, shortly after the end of the sabbath, meaning that preparations for the show could violate the sabbath.

The EBU has called for keeping politics out of the contest.

"The EBU insists that every host broadcaster takes all necessary steps to safeguard the non-political character of the event," it said.

According to the EBU, initial discussions about the contest began this week and the host city is set to be announced by September.

Israel has fought to stave off any inroads by the boycott movement, making lists of activists and denying them entry to the country. It has formed a government ministry whose primary mission is to combat the group.

The movement's successes have been mixed. It takes credit for persuading a slew of musicians not to perform in Israel.

But many others still do and Israel recently hosted the first leg of the Giro D'Italia, the first time the cycling event has been held outside of Europe, despite fierce BDS opposition. The first stage of the race took place in Jerusalem.

The Latest | World leaders call in Iran and Israel to avoid allowing conflict to worsen

2024-04-20 02:07 Last Updated At：02:12

World leaders called on Iran and Israel to try to avoid escalating tensions following the apparent Israeli strike on Friday near an Iranian air base and nuclear facility.

Group of Seven foreign ministers warned of new sanctions against Iran on Friday for its drone and missile attack on Israel last weekend, and urged both sides to avoid worsening the conflict.

Meanwhile, an apparent Israeli drone attack on Iran saw troops fire air defenses near the central city of Isfahan. It came days after Tehran’s unprecedented drone-and-missile assault on Israel.

Israel also carried out a missile strike on an air defense unit in southern Syria, causing material damage, Syria's state-run SANA news agency said, citing a military statement.

Israel had vowed to respond to Iran’s weekend attack.

Regional tensions have increased since the start of the latest Israel-Hamas war on Oct. 7, when Hamas and Islamic Jihad — two militant groups backed by Iran — carried out a cross-border attack that killed 1,200 people in Israel and kidnapped 250 others. Israel responded with an offensive in Gaza that has caused widespread devastation and killed more than 33,900 people, according to local health officials.

Currently:

— Iran fires at apparent Israeli attack drones near Isfahan air base and nuclear site

— Israel gave U.S. last-minute warning about drone attack on Iran, Italian foreign minister says

— Ukraine, Israel aid advances in rare House vote as Democrats help Republicans push it forward

— S&P becomes second major U.S. agency to downgrade Israel’s long-term credit rating

— U.S. vetoes a widely supported resolution backing full U.N. membership for Palestine.

Here is the latest:

Leaders from around the Mideast and the world called on Iran and Israel to try to avoid escalating tensions following the apparent Israeli strike near an Iranian air base and nuclear facility.

Group of Seven foreign ministers meeting in Italy urged both countries to show restraint, with the host nation’s foreign minister, Antonio Tajani, saying the meeting’s agenda was changed Friday to address the latest Mideast developments and that the “political objective is de-escalation.”

Tajani also said the G7 ministers condemned Iran’s weekend attack on Israel.

Jordan’s deputy prime minister and minister of foreign affairs, Ayman Al-Safadi, stressed the need to ease regional tensions. He also reiterated that Jordan, which is situated between Iran and Israel, will not allow itself to be “turned into an arena of conflict between Iran and Israel,” according to a statement issued by Jordan’s Foreign Ministry.

In a call with Iran’s foreign minister, Hussein Amir Abdullahian, after Friday’s strike, Al-Safadi stressed that Jordan will not allow Iran or Israel to violate Jordan’s airspace, according to the statement, which noted that Abdullahian said his country respects Jordan and wants to ensure the security of the region.

Sergey Lavrov, the foreign minister of Iran-ally Russia, told several Russian radio stations Friday that Moscow informed Israel that Iran isn’t seeking to escalate the conflict. He said Russian leaders were in contact with their Iranian counterparts as well as with the Israelis.

“We very clearly outlined in these conversations and conveyed to the Israelis that Iran does not want escalation,” Lavrov said after news broke of the strike on Iran.

Iran couldn’t “not respond to a gross violation of international law and status of a diplomatic mission, but it doesn’t want escalation,” Lavrov added, referring to the apparent Israeli airstrike that killed two Iranian generals in Syria on April 1.

The leaders of Britain, Germany and the European Commission, and China’s foreign ministry also called for Iran and Israel to avoid worsening the conflict.

“We have condemned Iran’s reckless and dangerous barrage of missiles against Israel ... and Israel absolutely has the right to self defense,” British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said. “But as I said to (Israeli) Prime Minister Netanyahu when I spoke to him last week, and more generally, significant escalation is not in anyone’s interest. What we want to see is calm heads prevail across the region.”

RAMALLAH, West Bank -- An Israeli military raid Friday on a refugee camp in the northern West Bank killed at least four Palestinians, including three militants, according to the Israeli military, Palestinian health officials and a militant group.

The raid took place in the Nur Shams urban camp, which is in an area of the occupied West Bank where the military frequently operates.

Palestinian health officials said a 16-year-old boy, Qaid Fathi Nasrallah, was shot dead by Israeli fire. The Islamic Jihad militant group also confirmed the deaths of three members, including Mohammed Jaber, who it said was its military commander in the area.

The Israeli military said its forces killed a number of militants, made arrests and found explosives there. Four Israeli soldiers were slightly wounded, it said.

Violence has flared in the West Bank since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel. More than 460 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire, Palestinian health officials say, as Israel stages frequent raids into towns and cities in the volatile territory.

The dead have included militants, but also stone-throwers and bystanders. Some have also been killed by violence from Israeli settlers.

WASHINGTON — The reported strikes Friday near an Iranian air base and Iran-backed targets in Syria and Iraq appear to show a limited response to Iran's attack on Israel last weekend, according to a pro-Israel think tank based in Washington.

The apparent Israeli drone attack near a major air base and a nuclear site around the central Iranian city of Isfahan activated the country's air defenses, just days after Tehran launched a drone and missile assault on Israel.

No Iranian official directly acknowledged the possibility that Israel had attacked, and the Israeli military did not respond to a request for comment.

But analysts said the relatively limited scope of the Israeli attack and subdued response by Tehran seem to indicate the threat of an immediate escalation had diminished.

The pro-Israel Jewish Institute for National Security of America, based in Washington, said that in addition to showing that Israel doesn't appear to want to escalate tensions, the strikes seem intended to signal that Iran can't attack Israel with impunity.

“Since Isfahan lies in the center of Iran and hosts both a military base and a nuclear site, the Israeli strike also demonstrated Israel’s ability to penetrate Iranian air defenses and reach key Iranian assets, should it decide to launch a larger strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities,” the group said in a statement.

BERLIN — The head of the U.N. atomic watchdog says there was no damage at the Isfahan nuclear facility after an apparent Israeli drone attack on a major air base near the Iranian city.

When asked about the nuclear facility on Sky News, International Atomic Energy Agency Director-General Rafael Mariano Grossi said “there hasn’t been any damage at the site or anything that would indicate that (there) were hits nearby or something that could lead you to believe that there was an intention to reach these places.”

The facility at Isfahan operates three small Chinese-supplied research reactors, as well as handling fuel production and other activities for Iran’s civilian nuclear program.

Isfahan also is home to sites associated with Iran’s nuclear program, including its underground Natanz enrichment site, which has been repeatedly targeted by suspected Israeli sabotage attacks.

Iranian authorities have said that air defenses fired at a major air base in Isfahan, which long has been home to Iran’s fleet of American-made F-14 Tomcats — purchased before the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

BAGHDAD — Remnants of a missile were found Friday near Latifiya, southwest of Baghdad.

An official with an Iranian-backed militia in Iraq, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak to journalists, said the missile had been shot down as a result of jamming operations. The Iraqi army doesn't have jamming devices of the type apparently used to down the missile, but Iran has provided such devices to its affiliated militias.

It wasn't immediately clear whether the missile was part of an Israeli attack on Iran or part of last weekend's Iranian attack on Israel. In photographs from the scene published by local media, it appeared to be a air-to-surface missile. There were no reports of Iran using air-to-surface missiles in Saturday’s barrage, which included more than 300 drones, ballistic missiles and cruise missiles.

Tehran launched the attack in retaliation for a suspected Israeli strike in Syria on April 1 that killed two Iranian generals in an Iranian consular building.

— By Qassim Abdul-Zahra.

Israel’s long-term credit rating is being downgraded by S&P, which cited the risk of military escalation with Iran. It is the second major U.S. credit ratings agency to do so.

There was an apparent drone attack at a major air base and a nuclear site near the central city of Isfahan early Friday, which is suspected of being part of an Israeli retaliation for Tehran’s unprecedented drone-and-missile assault on the country days ago.

S&P’s downgrade was issued shortly before the strike in Iran and almost three months after Moody’s, another major U.S. credit agency, downgraded Israel’s rating due to the “ongoing military conflict with Hamas.”

S&P Global Ratings lowered its long-term foreign and local currency sovereign credit ratings on Israel to ‘A+’ from ‘AA-’ and the short-term ratings to ‘A-1’ from ‘A-1+.’

ISTANBUL — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that statements issued by Iran and Israel after an apparent drone attack on Friday in Iran are “illogical.”

Erdogan, who is highly critical of Israel’s actions in Gaza, also criticized the U.S. for continuing to support Israel in the U.N. Security Council as tensions escalate between Israel and Iran.

Erdogan told journalists that neither Iran nor Israel is taking “ownership” of the situation.

“Currently Israel is saying different things. Iran puts forward different views. There is no ownership (of the situation). There is not one statement that isn’t illogical,” he said.

Erdogan accused the U.S. of making conflicting statements about having prior knowledge of the drone strikes. He also reiterated that he would host Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh on Saturday. When asked what would be on their agenda, Erdogan refused to give details.

CAPRI, Italy — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday the United States was not involved in any “offensive operations” in the apparent Israeli drone attack in Iran, but declined to respond to claims that Israel gave the U.S. advance notice of the action.

“I’m not going to speak to that except to say that the United States has not been involved in any offensive operations,” Blinken said.

Asked to describe the current U.S.-Israel relationship, Blinken noted that Israel makes its own decisions, but the United States is committed to its security.

“We are committed to helping Israel defend itself and as necessary participating in its defense, as you saw just a few days ago,” Blinken said. “Again, Israel makes its decisions, but we have a commitment to defending it.

"And you saw an unprecedented attack from Iran, and Israel and the United States and others worked with Israel to make sure that that attack would not have devastating consequences. And thankfully, it did not.”

CAPRI, Italy — The United States told the Group of Seven foreign ministers on Friday that it received “last minute” information from Israel about a drone action in Iran, Italy’s foreign minister said.

Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said the United States provided the information at a Friday morning session that was changed at the last minute to address the apparent attack. Tajani said the U.S. informed the G7 ministers that it had been “informed at the last minute” by Israel about the drones. “But there was no sharing of the attack by the U.S. It was a mere information.”

He said Italians living in Iran were all accounted for and “without problems.”

BEIRUT — Israel carried out a missile strike targeting an air defense unit in its south and causing material damage, Syria’s state-run SANA news agency quoted a military statement as saying Friday. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, said the strike hit a military radar for government forces. It was not clear if there were casualties, the Observatory said.

The Observatory’s chief Rami Abdurrahman said six Israeli fighter jets entered Syria’s airspace and were flying east when they were spotted by the radar. He added that the fighters jets were flying east.

The warplanes were seen around the time loud noises and drones were reported near a major Iranian air base and nuclear site early Friday. That area of Syria is directly west of Isfahan, some 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) away, and east of Israel.

Iranian state television described all atomic sites in the Isfahan area as “fully safe.” The United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, also said “there is no damage to Iran’s nuclear sites” after the commotion.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran fired air defense batteries early Friday morning at a major air base and a nuclear site near its central city of Isfahan over drones being spotted, raising fears of a possible Israeli retaliatory strike following Tehran’s unprecedented drone-and-missile assault on the country.

Iran then grounded commercial flights in Tehran and across areas of its western and central regions. Loudspeakers informed customers of the incident at Imam Khomeini International Airport in Tehran, online videos purported to show. Iran later restored normal flight service, authorities said.

Air defenses fired in several provinces over reports of drones being in the air, state television reported. However, Iranian state-run media sought to immediately downplay the incident, airing footage of an otherwise-peaceful Isfahan morning.

The facility at Isfahan operates three small Chinese-supplied research reactors, as well as handles fuel production and other activities for Iran’s civilian nuclear program.