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Call for boycott of Israel from contest Boycott Alert: 15 May 2002 Petition against the participation of Israel to the Eurosong contest Hello, Concerns: Israel and the Eurovision Song Contest 2002 At May 25 the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) organises the Eurovision Song Contest edition 2002 at Tallinn (Estonia). One of the participating countries will be Israel. This major TV-event will be broadcasted all over the continent of Europe, parts of Asia and in Israel too. Because we strongly believe it would be very effective these days to give a strong signal to the State of Israel that we, people of Europe and the World, can not accept the violations of International Humanitarian Laws Israel has recently undertaken, we are organising a "PETITION OBJECTING TO THE PARTICIPATION OF THE ISRAELI CANDIDATE IN THE EUROVISION SONG CONTEST 2002" Our objective is to get as many signatures as possible from people all over Europe and the rest of the World. We believe that you will support this petition also! Please have a look and if you agree, we kindly invite you to sign the petition. You can find the petition at http://www.stopisrael.com If you want to do more in order to help us with promoting this online petition all over the European Continent and in the rest of the World, we would really appreciate it. Therefore, please forward this message to other people and organisations you know. We really would appreciate this. The power of the Internet is in (y)our hands! Let's Use It! If you have more questions you want to ask us, please feel free to contact us at eurosongpetition@skynet.be Thanks for your support ! Johan Melotte Sultan Semlali
Boycott petition attacked by zionists Boycott Update: 23 May 2002 Recently you signed the ONLINE PETITION OBJECTING TO THE PARTICIPATION OF THE ISRAELI CANDIDATE IN THE EUROVISION SONG CONTEST. We thank you for that! But unfortunately our website has been attacked by hackers. The hackers succeeded in deleting the boot-sectors of the servers' harddisks. We regret this because we only aim for peace, and the answer we get is a violent one. However, there was not a single moment that the hackers were able to hack the database with the email-addresses of the undersigners. So there is no need to worry. All data are safe and are in the exclusive possession of ourselves. But, the hackers succeeded to make the website completely inaccessible for more then three days for people who wanted to sing the petition. This resulted in a complete collaps of the email-campaign we started...
Israel not welcome at Eurovision Reports of anti-Semitism in Eurovision As Latvia celebrated its victory Saturday night at the 47th Eurovision Song Contest in Tallinn, Estonia, reports of European anti-Semitism and anti-Israel sentiment reached the local press here. During the broadcast, which reached close to 120 countries worldwide, Swedish television viewer Dmitri Wasserman phoned The Jerusalem Post to complain that the announcer introducing the performers had said before the performance by Israel's entrant Sarit Hadad, "Many people thought that Israel should not be appearing in the contest due to their treatment of the Palestinians." Following her performance, he added, "Let's see how many points Israel will get from this song. I know they'll get zero from me." The Swedish jury did not award any points to Israel. As well as Wasserman's firsthand account, Jewish viewers in Belgium also reported that their local TV presenters had advised people not to vote for Israel. Belgium, however, awarded Hadad two points. Israel Radio reported that announcers in Belgium told viewers not to think that just because Hadad was wearing an all-white outfit, Israel wanted peace. However, Hadad said the Tvika Pick and Yoav Ginnai-penned tune "Light a Candle," sung in Hebrew and English, did not place as badly as predicted. With a total of 37 points, the local princess of pop finished 12th, making her the most successful Israeli Eurovision candidate in recent years. The Latvian song "I Wanna" sung by 21-year-old jazz singer and law graduate Marie N, won the contest.
Mossad at Eurovision? More on Eurovision anti-Semitism Sarit Hadad's backup singers in the Eurovision song contest were security agents, media sources report. Hadad was met with opposition when she sang Israel's entry "Light a Candle," as local Belgian and Sweden TV presenters advised the audience not to vote for her. Presenters cited Israel's treatment of the Palestinians as the reason. The Swedish judges gave Hadad no points. Belgian viewers gave her two. Hadad finished 12th out of 24, with 37 points. Votes are tallied as viewers of participating countries in the Eurovision call up their choices via telephone. Viewers vote for what they consider the best singer, but are forbidden to vote for their own country's.
Eurovision vote fuels Israeli siege mentality By Peter Hirschberg, The Eurovision song contest Saturday night provided already-sensitive Israelis with some more grist for their world-is-against-us sentiment, even though the country's representative, Sarit Hadad, placed a creditable 12th. The feeling cradled by many Israelis that the world - in particular Europe - has a skewed perception of the conflict with the Palestinians, always viewing Israel as the oppressor and the Palestinians as the victim, was fed by events surrounding the annual song competition. Before the contest got underway, Yoav Ginai, who wrote the lyrics for the Israeli entry "Light a Candle," told Channel One television that the Israeli delegation had encountered anti-Israel comments throughout their week-long stay in the Estonian capital of Tallin. "We heard very unpleasant remarks at the hotel and during rehearsals," Ginai said. After the points had been tallied, and it emerged that Hadad's result was good enough to ensure Israel a place in next year's competition, Ginai said, "This is a great achievement in light of the difficult situation, and the political nature of the vote." The sense that Israel had been judged by a different standard was further reinforced by revelations that local Belgian and Swedish TV presenters had advised viewers not to vote for Israel's entry. Members of the Jewish community in Sweden said that the presenters on national TV1 announced before Hadad appeared that Israel was not even meant to take part in the contest "because of what it is doing to the Palestinians." Presenters on a Flemish television station advised their viewers not to be duped into thinking that Hadad's white dress was an indication that Israel wanted peace. While the Swedish jury obliged, failing to give Israel any points, the Belgian jury awarded Hadad two points. Army Radio presenter Razi Barkai, clearly more amused than concerned by the revelations of anti-Israelism around the Eurovision contest, started his morning talk show on a tongue-in-cheek note with a song titled, "The world is against us." The Europe-loathes-Israel theory, however, had one surprising chink in it: France, considered by many Israelis to be the leader of anti-Israel sentiment in Europe, awarded Hadad with her highest score of 10 points. Germany also gave Israel one of its best scores – 6 points. Called on to explain the actions of Sweden's TV1, a bemused-sounding Swedish ambassador, Anders Liden, told Army Radio he seriously doubted the reports regarding TV1, but that if the presenters had made anti-Israel comments, they were expressing a "personal opinion" and not that held by the government. "The line of the Swedish government is never to isolate or boycott Israel in any way." Science, Culture and Sports Minister Matan Vilnai said he viewed the Eurovision episode as further proof of the "complex" situation Israel finds itself in. "Every issue becomes political. Two-thirds of the countries boycotted us. But Sarit was there. And it wasn't an easy thing to do. The points weren't awarded only on the basis of the quality of the song, but there was clearly the matter of Israel's standing today in the world, and in particular in Europe. This clearly affected Sarit's result." There was no point, Vilnai said, in lodging an official complaint, but Israel had to continuously "fight the desire by countries around the world to isolate us and to turn everything into a political issue." One Israeli who seemed amused, rather than persecuted by the result, was Shai Kerem, the manager of Dana International, who won the competition for Israel in 1998 with her song "Diva." He said he found it "ridiculous" that the Swedish ambassador was having to contend with questions over whether his country had not voted for Israel because of "some type of anti-Israel" sentiment. And it was not only Israelis who were feeling persecuted, the Swedish ambassador assured listeners to Army Radio. In Sweden, he said, there were complaints that because of various scoring deals between countries competing in the contest, "the Swedish song didn't do better."
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