The last round of the Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday night, a Norwegian judge who had admitted to breaking the rules of the opposition to voting against Israel’s Eden Golan, raises the question of whether anti-Israeli desires prevented the 20-year-old Jewish song from capturing the title.
The Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation ( NRK), the s music industry’s jurors, selected Olso, Norway’s Daniel Owen, 24, who admitted in an Instagram video post on Sunday that his opinions on the conflict in Gaza prevented him from casting a vote for Israel’s Eden Golan on Saturday despite being told by organizers that politics should n’t be taken into account when making decisions.
Owen apologized on behalf of his brother jury after receiving a “flood of communications and comments” criticizing the decision, even though the Scandinavian group had given Israel eight points.
He explained that “each jury member votes separately without having to decide how many points to allocate to each nation to prevent conflict and maintain good judgment,” he continued.
Owen said that before the telecast on Saturday, he and other jurors were given instructions, which stated that jurors “must no honour or discriminate against any student based on ethnicity, gender, eligibility, political views, or any other purpose other than the music and performance.
” Do not let social views affect how you evaluate a music and/or an musician,” the guidelines emphasised.
But, Owen admitted that his decision was no objective and was influenced by his sights on Israel, admitting that” given the current situation, it was difficult for me to neglect this, “adding:” What is happening in Palestine is heartbreaking and I cannot in any manner help Israel’s actions.
” In my opinion, Israel should not have been allowed to participate in Eurovision at all”, he added.
” Although I was not involved in the allocation of points to Israel, I still want to apologize for this being shown from the Norwegian jury … My heart, all my support goes out to Palestine, Free Palestine”! Owen concluded.
The voting public largely backed 20-year-old Israeli song Eden Golan despite pushback from other performers like Ireland’s body magic-practicing non-binary song Bambie Thug and thousands of anti-Israel protesters marching through Malmö, Sweden, the host city of Eurovision, in protest of Israel’s participation in the music contest.
Golan, who was forced to attend the contest under heavy security, largely being confined to her hotel room during the proceedings,  , received , 323 votes from the television audience, the second most of any performer, only trailing behind Croatia’s contestant, who received 337.
Golan won both the popular vote and the “rest of the world” vote, which included nations that were n’t eligible for this year’s contest, in 14 of the 37 eligible nations.
However, the international jury chose to only give the” Hurricane” singer 52 points, which meant that Golan would ultimately place fifth overall, despite the fact that the public did not support the Russian-Israeli singer in the end.
Some people believe the Jewish singer could have won the Eurovision contest if the juror had made clear that there was political bias against Israel, as opposed to Nemo, a non-binary rapper from Switzerland.
In response to Owen’s admission, Eli Kowaz, a policy advisor at Israel Policy Forum, wrote:” If anyone had any doubts, the antisemitic motives that prevented Eden Golan , from winning Eurovision last night are becoming more and more clear”.
Woke Fail: Irish Eurovision Voters Award Israel Second- Most Points, Despite Bambie Thug Protestshttps: //t. co/Y6sttiO99O
— Breitbart London ( @BreitbartLondon ) May 12, 2024
