{"id":11437,"date":"2024-05-10T11:12:38","date_gmt":"2024-05-10T11:12:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/?p=11437"},"modified":"2024-05-10T11:12:40","modified_gmt":"2024-05-10T11:12:40","slug":"thousands-march-in-swedens-malmo-against-israels-eurovision-participation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/thousands-march-in-swedens-malmo-against-israels-eurovision-participation\/","title":{"rendered":"Thousands march in Sweden\u2019s Malmo against Israel\u2019s Eurovision participation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators marched in the Swedish port city of Malmo against Israel\u2019s participation in the pan-continental Eurovision Song Contest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Protesters waving Palestinian flags packed the historic Stortorget square near Malmo\u2019s 16th-century town hall before a planned march on Thursday through the city for a rally in a park several kilometres from the Eurovision venue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Police estimated that between 10,000 and 12,000 people took part. Among those in the crowd was Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chanting \u201cfrom the river to the sea, Palestine will be free\u201d and \u201cIsrael is a terror state\u201d, the demonstrators set off smoke flares in the Palestinian flag colours during a noisy but peaceful rally to criticise Israel and call for a ceasefire in Gaza. There was a large police presence, with a hovering helicopter, and officers on rooftops with binoculars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A smaller pro-Israel protest was also held on Thursday in a central Malmo square.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Contest organisers, who try to keep Eurovision a nonpolitical event, have rejected calls to bar Israel over the war on Gaza.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But they told Israel to change the lyrics of its entry, originally titled October Rain in an apparent reference to the October 7 attack led by the Palestinian group Hamas. The song was renamed Hurricane and Israeli singer Eden Golan was allowed to remain in the contest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some audience members attending a dress rehearsal on Wednesday could be heard booing during Golan\u2019s performance. But on Thursday she won enough viewer votes to come in the top 10 of 16 acts competing in a semifinal to secure a place in Saturday\u2019s title competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Critics of the decision to let Israel compete point out that Russia was kicked out of Eurovision in 2022 after its invasion of Ukraine, and Belarus was ejected a year earlier over its government\u2019s crackdown on dissent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Sweden
Chanting ‘from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free’ and ‘Israel is a terror state’, the demonstrators set off smoke flares in the Palestinian flag colours. [Martin Meissner\/AP Photo]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Sweden
Police estimated that between 10,000 and 12,000 people took part in the protest. [Martin Meissner\/AP Photo]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Sweden
Contest organisers, who try to keep Eurovision a nonpolitical event, rejected calls to bar Israel over the conduct of its war on Gaza. [Martin Meissner\/AP Photo]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Sweden
Protesters hold a banner that reads ‘No To Genocide’ during a pro-Palestinian demonstration for excluding Israel from Eurovision. [Martin Meissner\/AP Photo]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Sweden
Critics of the decision to let Israel compete point out that Russia was kicked out of Eurovision in 2022 after its invasion of Ukraine, and Belarus was ejected a year earlier over its government\u2019s crackdown on dissent. [Martin Meissner\/AP Photo]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Sweden<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

People carry a banner with the words in Swedish, ‘For an independent Palestine’. [Martin Meissner\/AP Photo]<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Sweden<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Hundreds of artists in Sweden and elsewhere have pushed for Israel to be blocked from taking part. [Martin Meissner\/AP Photo]<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Source: AL JAZEERA)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators marched in the Swedish port city of Malmo against Israel\u2019s participation in the pan-continental Eurovision Song Contest. Protesters waving Palestinian flags packed the historic Stortorget square near Malmo\u2019s 16th-century town hall before a planned march on Thursday through the city for a rally in a park several kilometres from the Eurovision …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":11438,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11437"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11437\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11440,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11437\/revisions\/11440"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}