In Malmö, the Eurovision party transformed into entrenched camps

“United by music”, the new slogan of the Eurovision Song Contest, displayed on the facade of the Malmö Arena, in the south of Sweden, location of this global musical event, sounds strange as this 68th 2024 edition is marked by the controversy. The war in Gaza has invited itself into this musical festival - the most watched in Europe - and is causing trouble with the participation of an Israeli singer, Eden Golan, in this competition, which since the beginning of the year has raised a wind of protests in Sweden and abroad.

More than a thousand artists in Sweden unsuccessfully urged organizers the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) in January to exclude Israel from the competition following the Israeli military offensive in the Palestinian enclave of Gaza.

Faced with the risk of attacks and violent demonstrations, the Swedish police deployed considerable forces in Malmö, which is home to a large immigrant community, particularly from the Middle East, and transformed into a city under siege. She called on reinforcements from Denmark and Norway to ensure the security of this high-risk event which attracted up to 100,000 visitors. “We respect freedom of expression and demonstration. But we set limits and will show low tolerance towards troublemakers,” warned Petra Stenkula, head of the Malmö police district.

A warning heard. On Thursday, around 12,000 demonstrators, at the call of the collective “Stop Israel, For Peace and Free Palestine”, marched through the streets, monitored in the air by helicopters and drones and supervised by an impressive police cordon at on foot, by car and on horseback. With Palestinian flags and signs in hand, demonstrators of all ages chanted “Stop massacring our children”, “Free Palestine”, “Sweden say no to genocide” and even “No to Israel in Eurovision”.

Holding a banner reading “Jews for a Free Palestine”, Klaus Goldschmidt, a member of the Danish organization “Jews for Justice”, who came from neighboring Denmark, thinks it is “essential that the Jewish state knows that it "is not welcome in Malmö when he commits so many human rights violations in Gaza." “It’s important for me to point this out as a Jew, because I don’t identify with the terrible things this state is doing. No, Israel does not speak on behalf of Jews around the world,” he emphasizes. “No, Israel has no place in this competition when it continues its atrocities in Gaza,” fulminates Yasser, a Syrian refugee in Malmö.

Like many protesters, he accuses the EBU of “using double standards”, by excluding Russia from the competition in 2022 because of its invasion of Ukraine, but by “refusing to do so”. so much for Israel!”

Away from the demonstration, around a hundred people, waving Israeli flags, gathered to provide musical support for the Israeli candidate, interrupted by a woman, Kajsa Ekis Ekman, Swedish journalist, author and activist, shouting “genocide , genocide” before being removed by the police.

Some six kilometers from the city center, far from the cries of the crowd, the Malmö Arena, an area prohibited to demonstrators, resembles an entrenched camp, surrounded by barbed wire, mobile iron fences equipped with spikes, monitored by heavily armed police. and anti-riot armored vehicles. “It’s very sad to party under the barbed wire,” laments Eva, a local resident.

Reassured by the peaceful nature of the demonstrations, the police authorities are not letting down their guard, maintaining a massive presence in the streets after the Israeli singer's qualification on Thursday evening for Saturday's final. They fear a new pro-Palestinian demonstration announced a few hours before the Eurovision final.