Thousands of pro-Palestine demonstrators, including climate activist Greta Thunberg, have taken to the streets in the Swedish city of Malmo to protest against Israel’s inclusion in Eurovision.
Protesters wearing keffiyehs and waving Palestinian flags filled the port city on Thursday, where the second semifinal was scheduled to take place later at night.
“It’s important to be here,” said Amani Eli-Ali, a Malmo resident of Palestinian heritage. “It’s not OK for Sweden to arrange this Eurovision and have Israel in the contest.”
Calls to bar Israel from the competition have grown amid Israel’s war in Gaza, which has killed more than 34,900 people, mostly women and children, according to Palestinian authorities.Eurovision has resisted calls to eject Israel but asked the country to modify the lyrics of its original song, October Rain, which appeared to reference the Hamas attack.
Critics have pointed out that Russia was expelled in 2022 following its invasion of Ukraine, and Belarus was excluded the previous year following a crackdown on protesters.
The Israeli government warned that there was “tangible concern” that Israelis could be attacked, and Lotta Svensson, a police incident commander, told the news outlet Reuters over the weekend that law enforcement was “keeping a bit of an extra eye on Israel” because of high tensions over the war in Gaza.
But police said on Thursday that the protest has been mostly calm. A pro-Israel demonstration was also scheduled for later in the day.
