The Palestinian BDS movement asked the world to boycott the Eurovision song contest held in Israel.
Israel is a text-book example of a settler-colonial state, which wants the land but not its people. It is a state, which has occupied Palestinian lands since the 1948, and where the compulsion to “eliminate the native” (Wolfe 2006) takes on very concrete forms. I will not spend time here to justify these claims in detail because the Internet is full of information. One good place to start is electronicintiada.org, or the Journal of Palestine Studies.
The Palestinian Boycott, Divest and Sanctions (BDS) movement was launched years before Netta Barzilai’s Eurovision victory in 2018. The idea behind the movement is to use the same non-violent methods, which proved successful in toppling South Africa’s apartheid regime, to expose and make visible Israel’s military occupation and to force Israel to abide to international agreements and respect human rights of the Palestinians. The campaign is grounded within the Palestinian civil society, but relies on the solidarity and support of people who live outside Palestine.
I have argued elsewhere that colonial violence operates through the management of zones of visibility and invisibility. Those who are not its immediate targets, and who are unaware of the history of the (settler) colonial state or, for ideological reasons, are unwilling to learn that history, can live entire lives without really seeing or feeling the violence. Those who are the targets of settler colonial “elimination” have no such luxury – they feel and see its effects on individual bodies and societies every day.
In Israel/Palestine, one good example of the management of zones of visibility and invisibility is the network of walls, road-blocks and by-pass roads that Israel has constructed in the West Bank. A citizen of Israel can travel to any of the illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank using good motorways and highways. On her way, she may admire the serene landscape of hills, olive groves and villages, and plan her schedule for the rest of the day.
A Palestinian living in the West Bank has been purposefully denied such luxury. She is not allowed to use Israeli roads, which in fact cut straight through Palestinian land and obstruct her movement. She cannot rely on Palestinian highways that used to connect Palestinian cities to one another, either, because many of them have been closed by check-points where entry is sometimes allowed, other times not. Some of the roads have been closed permanently, others temporarily, and the system keeps changing all the time so that unpredictability, in itself, becomes a huge problem. A trip that should not take more than two hours can take 11 hours and in worse case, be entirely unsuccessful. Nothing can be planned and for this reason it might feel easier to not even try, just stay at home.
Moreover, Palestinian farmers in the village that the Israeli citizen sees from her car window are very likely to be struggling to reach their olive groves that are on the neighboring hill, either for the fear of violence from the nearby Israeli settlement, or because the West Bank Wall snakes between the village and the olive grove, making access difficult and route to the grove very long. Sometimes passage is denied altogether – coincidentally, this happens often in the time of harvest.
Driving in the West Bank, it is possible to stare straight out of the car window but see or learn nothing of the world the Palestinians live in. And yet, everything is out there to be seen. All one needs is knowledge of history and some tools to interpret the landscape of occupation and land-grab. This can be gained by reading and by spending proper time on the Palestinian side. Those with less time are served well by guided tours organized by groups such as the Alternative Tourism Group. I promise that the experience will be world-changing.
***
Once the zone of invisibility has become visible, one can no longer choose not to see it. For anyone familiar with the reality of Palestinian lives, the idea of attending a Eurovision song context in Tel Aviv, to celebrate diversity, inclusion and togetherness, appears not just irreducibly political; it seems macabre.
Countless artists have answered to the BDS call to boycott the song contest. In Iceland, debate was so strong that eventually the group which ended up representing the country – Hatari – was one which sided with the BDS movement and articulated a clearly stated anti-occupation agenda.
Norway, in turn, voted for Keiino, for a group whose song is peppered by Sámi joiking, performed by Sámi musician Fred Buljo, who has also been active in Sámi politics. Many, including the contestants themselves, saw this as a great chance to bring up the voice of the indigenous Sámi and create awareness of their culture and situation. All Sámi do not share this view, however: for instance the iconic Sámi joik singer Mari Boine has supported the boycott publicly, and in Finland, Helge West’s critical blog describes movingly the paradoxes of Sámi participation in this song contest. Keiino, however, maintains that their decision to participate is not political. “Eurovision is a non-political event and I believe that the values of Eurovision are to include everyone and to have a meeting place where countries and cultures can meet in a friendly song competition. It is so important”
Hatari, on the other hand, recognized that participation is irreducibly political, whether one wants or not. In an interview with the Independent, Matthias Haraldsson, one of the singers, explains:
“You sign up to a contract that says you’re not allowed to be political in the competition, but if anyone thinks they’re going to Tel Aviv without a political message they couldn’t be more wrong. It’s a paradox because all of the songs that make it to that stage will offend the sensibilities of many people by virtue of the context of where the contest is taking place, and the legitimate criticisms many people have.”
“So that in itself is a breach of the Eurovision rules. You can’t go to Tel Aviv and perform on that stage without breaking the rules of Eurovision. That goes for us and everyone else. And you can’t be completely silent about the situation, as the silence in itself is a massive political statement too.”
Despite Hatari’s stated support, the BDS movement has officially denounced also their participation and asked them to withdraw, expressing that from the perspective of the movement, cancelling their performance would be the most meaningful expression of solidarity. “While we appreciate gestures of solidarity, we cannot accept them when they come with an act that clearly undermines our nonviolent human rights movement.”
***
The question whether or not one is ready to line up with the BDS, and boycott the Eurovision song contest, is fundamentally a question of solidarity with an indigenous people – a people which has already tried virtually every possible strategy to overcome their erasure by a hyper-militarized settler colonial state over the past 70 years.
Still, I must admit that somewhere in secrecy, I do hope that it is Island’s contribution that will win the contest this year. Perhaps, after the Eurovision, the Palestinian BDS movement will be better known also in Scandinavia.
