Just hours after Israeli singer Yuval Raphael defied anti-Israel activists and antisemites by winning the public vote at the Eurovision Song Contest, Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez was already throwing a tantrum.
Displeased with the result—or more precisely, with the fact that Europe’s TV-watching public failed to fall in line—Sánchez called for Israel to be banned. Not just from Eurovision. From everything.
In a speech on Monday, the Socialist leader claimed that Spain’s supposed commitment to human rights meant action had to be taken after Israel nearly won.
This followed Israel’s narrow defeat, thanks only to opaque and subjective jury scores that handed the title to Austria. But the viewing public’s verdict was clear: Spain, the UK, Portugal, Sweden, and Australia all gave Israel the maximum 12 points.
For Sánchez, who recently described Israel as a “genocidal state,” the fact that the public embraced an Israeli artist wasn’t a reason to reflect, but a cue to double down on his campaign to turn people against Israel.
Speaking at a press conference in Madrid, he sanctimoniously declared:
“Just as Russia was barred from Eurovision and excluded from international sporting competitions, Israel shouldn’t be allowed either. What we cannot allow is double standards in culture.”
Leaving aside the absurd comparison — Russia invaded Ukraine; Israel was attacked — Sánchez’s idea of “coherence” appears to mean excluding Israel from European cultural life entirely.
An Israeli performer at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival? Forget it.
Israel at the Venice Biennale? Not a chance.
Book festivals, film premieres, jazz concerts, art residencies, classical music tours — all potentially off-limits.
And one suspects Sánchez’s vision of “culture” doesn’t end at opera houses and art galleries. Perhaps he’d like to see Israelis banned from Europe entirely.
What Eurovision made clear is this: the public doesn’t agree with the elites that Israel should be made a pariah.
And the elites?
They don’t handle rejection well.
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