Israel Matzav

Sunday, May 01, 2016

'Palestinian' flag banned from Eurovision

Eurovision is a song festival in Europe that is televised and voted upon internationally. Israel is a participant. The imaginary country of 'Palestine' is not. (They don't need to be - a couple of years ago, the Israeli entrants showed up carrying Syrian flags).

Last week, Eurovision published a list of banned flags. The banned flags included the 'Palestinian' flag, and 'Palestinian' chief ~~negotiator~~ bottle washer Saeb Erekat howled in protest.

Palestinian leaders are blasting the Eurovision Song Contest for preventing their flag from being flown during the event this month.

Palestinian official Saeb Erekat voiced his dismay in a letter to Jean-Paul Philippot, the head of the European Broadcasting Union which oversees the yearly contest. In the letter, obtained by The Associated Press Sunday, Erekat says the decision is "totally biased and unacceptable." The Palestinians do not compete in the contest.

The EBU published a list of banned flags last week. Among them were the flags of Northern Cyprus, Kosovo, Spain's Basque region and the Islamic State group's flag.

In a Facebook post , the EBU apologized and said it removed the list of flags. An updated policy says flags of an "offensive, discriminatory, unsuitable, political or religious nature," are banned.

But the 'Palestinian' flag is certainly of an "offensive, discriminatory, unsuitable, political or religious nature." So they're still banned. Here's Eurovision's apology from Friday morning:

"On Thursday afternoon, a draft version of the flag policy for the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest was published on the website of the Globe Arena and ticket agency AXS. The document included a non-exhaustive list of examples of flags that under the flag policy are prohibited in the venue. This document was not intended to be published.

The organisers understand and acknowledge the sensitivities of presenting a selection of flags of organisations and territories, each of them of very different nature. The organisers apologise to everyone who feels offended by the list.

The EBU has asked the Globe Arena and AXS to immediately remove the document that includes the flag examples, and to publish the official document, without the examples, instead.

The official and final flag policy document will be published on the official website, Eurovision.tv, later today, along with a full explanation."

So these are now the permitted flags:

Official national flags of the 42 participating countries, or from one of the countries that have recently taken part (e.g. Turkey, Portugal, Romania).

Official national flags of any of the other United Nations Member States (see http://www.un.org/en/member-states/ for an updated list).

The European Union flag.

The rainbow flag, as a symbol of tolerance and diversity.

And if you follow that list of United Nations Members States.... Israel is in. 'Palestine' is not.

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Labels: Eurovision, Palestinian flag, Saeb Erekat

Friday, May 11, 2007

Not enough buttons pushed at Eurovision

After a controversial week in which Sderot's Teapacks threatened to withdraw from the contest and accused Eurovision's organizers of trying to censor their song, the group did not reach Saturday night's finals this evening, as it did not finish in the top ten.

Teapacks, the band representing Israel in the Eurovision Song Contest, will not be performing in the final round of the competition on Saturday, as it was not among the ten entries chosen in the semifinals on Thursday night.

During the band's performance at the event, the broadcast cut out for more than five seconds in several countries, prompting an appeal from the director of the Israel Broadcasting Authority's Culture and Entertainment Department. However, it was not enough to push the song through to the top ten.

The controversial Teapacks entry, "Push the Button" - interpreted as a jab at Iran's hard-line president and his country's nuclear program - was nearly banned from the competition at first due to its "inappropriate" political content. Tensions remained even after the song was eventually admitted to the contest.

I liked the song anyway.