Gaza casts shadow over Eurovision song contest

By Luke Baker

JERUSALEM, Jan 16 (Reuters) - The Eurovision Song Contest may not seem an obvious prism through which to view Israeli-Palestinian relations, but this year it's illuminating.

Israel, which has won the contest three times since it began competing in 1973, takes it very seriously, enjoying the cachet of being in a pan-European club that offers it the chance to promote itself to an estimated TV audience of 500 million.

In that vein, this year it has decided to enter a duo for the event, which takes place in Moscow in May: Mira Awad, a Christian Arab Israeli, will perform alongside Achinoam Nini, a Jewish Israeli singer better known as Noa.

The announcement was made by the Israel Broadcasting Authority this week, as Israel ploughed ahead with its now three-week-old offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Some newspapers carried the Eurovision news on the front page.

It wasn't long before some Jewish and many Arab Israeli artists and intellectuals began voicing disapproval.

Awad's participation was akin to a fig leaf for Israel, they wrote in an open letter to the actress, designed to make the country look "democratic, enlightened and peace-loving" at a time when it was engaged in full-blooded war in Gaza.

"The Israeli government is sending the two of you to Moscow as part of its propaganda machine that is trying to create the appearance of Jewish-Arab 'coexistence' under which it carries out the daily massacre of Palestinian civilians," read the letter, posted on the website of ynetnews.com.

"Your participation in the Eurovision is participation in the Israeli propaganda machine... Please Mira, for the children of Gaza and for the future of every child in this land -- Arabs and Jews -- don't be an accomplice to the killing machine."

Neither Awad nor Nini has commented on the letter, signed by an array of writers, actors, poets and playwrights, but the Israel Broadcasting Authority (IBA) defended the pair.

Continue reading this article at Reuters