Ukraine’s Eurovision win shows how racist Europeans are

On Saturday 14 May, Ukraine celebrated its Eurovision Song Contest victory. A day later, Palestinians around the world mourned the 74th anniversary of the Nakba, when Zionist forces ethnically cleansed 750,000 Palestinians from their land, and the state of Israel was declared.

The people of Europe (as well as Israel and Australia) politically voted for Ukraine to win Eurovision. Yes, Ukraine’s song was catchy, but would it have won if there wasn’t outrage over Russia’s bombing of the country? Very unlikely.

So, what’s this got to do with the Palestinian Nakba? Well, everything, actually.

Celebrating Apartheid Israel

In 2018, people around the world voted for Israel’s Netta Barzilai to win Eurovision. There was no Europe-wide outrage for the bombed Palestinians of Gaza, or for those in the West Bank murdered in cold blood by the Israeli occupation forces. In fact, quite the opposite happened: Europe decided to celebrate Israel.

The win meant that Israel hosted the contest in 2019. This gave the Israeli state a key opportunity to pinkwash its actions in Palestine.

Palestinians and their supporters called for an international boycott of Eurovision that year. And they urged musicians – including Madonna – to pull out from performing. Celebrities wrote an open letter, declaring:

We, the undersigned artists from Europe and beyond, support the heartfelt appeal from Palestinian artists to boycott the Eurovision Song Contest 2019 hosted by Israel. Until Palestinians can enjoy freedom, justice and equal rights, there should be no business-as-usual with the state that is denying them their basic rights.

Of course, there was backlash around the world. Prominent people in the entertainment industry, such as Stephen Fry and Simon Callow, even signed a letter in support of holding Eurovision in Israel. The letter declared that “music is our shared language”. Ironic, then, that Russia was disqualified from Eurovision 2022.

The 2019 event went ahead largely unaffected, and those who knew of Israel’s war crimes conveniently looked the other way (in the name of popular culture, of course).

Since 1973 – the year that Israel joined the contest – there has never been an all-out ban on the country participating. Not even after Operation Cast Lead, Israel’s assault on Gaza in 2008, in which it murdered around 1,400 Palestinians. And not after 2012’s Operation Pillar of Defense, which saw tens of thousands fleeing their homes. In fact, Israel hosted Eurovision 2019 at the same time as its depraved snipers were gunning down Palestinians who were protesting in the Great March of Return.

Racist Europe

When it comes to which war victims we deem worthy of our support, Eurovision 2022 showed our clear bias. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not against Ukraine winning the contest. But I struggle with the racism of Eurovision’s voters – many of whom won’t actually be conscious that they’re being racist – when they support Ukraine while also celebrating Apartheid Israel in the competition.

As the European public puts Ukrainian flags in the windows of our houses, we consistently ignore not just the murdering of Palestinians but also the killing of Kurdish people by the Turkish state. We ignore the Yemeni people bombed by Saudi Arabia with weapons from Britain; and the decades-long suffering of the people of Iraq and Afghanistan, largely caused by UK government intervention. If we care about all victims of war, and if we care about peace, why aren’t we flying the Yemen flag, too? Or the Palestine flag?

Eurovision viewers will likely support sanctions against Russia, too. But where is the support for the Palestinians who having been calling for international boycott, divestment and sanctions against the Israeli state since 2005? Their calls have largely been ignored around the world.

Now it would be all too easy to argue that this isn’t the fault of the general public, that we are all influenced by of our governments’ policies – depicting Israel as a victim rather than an aggressor, for example – and by our mainstream media’s depictions of war. This is true, to an extent. We are all influenced by what we read and what we’re told.

But this isn’t the full picture. We need to reflect on why, as white people, we see Ukrainian victims of war as more worthy. Why are we more touched when it is white people being bombed? Why do we campaign hard for Ukrainian refugees to be welcomed with open arms, but barely bat an eyelid when brown refugees drown in the English Channel?

Are there racist stereotypes in our heads that categorise some people as ‘worthy’ victims of war and others as ‘unworthy’?

Reflect on the racism inside us

Even if it makes us uncomfortable, let’s reflect on the racism that plays out in all of us who were born with white privilege. Author Austin Channing Brown said:

White people desperately want to believe that only the lonely, isolated ‘whites only’ club members are racist. This is why the word ‘racist’ offends ‘nice white people’ so deeply. It challenges their self-identification as good people. Sadly, most white people are more worried about being called racist than about whether or not their actions are in fact racist or harmful.

It is essential for all of us to truly analyse this within ourselves. Because the impact of our racism goes on to affect generations after us. You might not see it as such, but the apathy we show towards the people of Palestine is not just a lack of interest: it is an act of racism. If you’re outspoken about Ukraine but silent about an Israeli soldier shooting dead a child in the West Bank, while knowing that this is happening, then you’re being racist. It’s time for all of us to really look at how we’re deeply conditioned by systems built on white supremacy, and to support each other to rid our minds of racism.