you thought I was angry when Jere lost last year well you can quadruple that amount for the shit they pulled with Joost
disqualifying a contestant for making a threatening gesture towards a journalist who's been stalking, harassing and filming him and other contestants without their consent for days, not even touching her, just gesturing. While said journalist is part of the delegation they've willfully allowed to participate despite them representing a country who's actively committing a genocide, who is at this moment putting men in concentration camps and bombarding cities?
"i can excuse genocide but i draw the line at gesturing angrily at a stalker" will never be a truer statement about the EBU. disgusting.
A disqualification for making a "threatening gesture" is an overreaction. Like the theories that Joost hit someone or the comment during the press conference were better reasons to completely ban him from the contest, but a "threatening gesture" or whatever that's supposed to mean... come on!
Joost had set his boundaries and those boundaries were disrespected. He was completely valid in his reaction
I have a lot to say about Eurovision this year and not in a happy way.
Regardless of your political stances on Palestine-Israel, the behaviour of the Israeli delegation and press was absolutely disgusting.
There are several reports of the delegation filming and taking pictures of contestants without their consent.
An example is Joost Klein (Dutch entry) (seperate from the "incident" that got him disqualified as confirmed by Cornald Maas, member of Dutch delegation), who was filmed without consent by Keren Peles, who wrote the Israeli entry and was a member of their delegation. Peles put the video on her Instagram story, branded him as anti-semitic and seemed to try and provoke him by asking why he was not on stage. (Source: her instagram stories, @IsrBreaksRules on X)
I have also seen videos I am unfortunately unable to find as of right now of Bambie Thug (the Irish entry) being filmed without their consent.
This was such an issue that Nemo (Switzerland), Bambie Thug (Ireland) and Marina Satti (Greece) refused to walk in the rehearsals for the flag parade and Bambie missed their dress rehearsals entirely in an effort to get the EBU to take it seriously. (Source: Bambie Thug's instagram stories of 11 May 2024)
Kan (Israeli broadcasting network) broke the rules of conduct, this was confirmed by the ebu. An Israeli commentator spoke about Bambie Thug in such a disrespectful way (purposely using incorrect pronouns, calling them a monster) that they filed several complaints. (Source: Bambie Thug instagram stories)
Spanish journalist Juan Ma was intimidated and harrased by Israeli journalists over his pro-Palestine stance and stated he had never felt so unsafe at Eurovision after attending for 11 YEARS (Source: @juanmafdez on X). It was bad enough for the Spanish delegation to go to the EBU directly and not just complain about the incident but demand better enforced safety for press and freedom of speech. (Source: @rtve_com on X)
Even if you are on Israel's side in the Israel-Palestine war, you cannot deny this is disgusting, unprofessional and above all unacceptable behaviour. It is not anti-semitic to call that out and it is ridiculous the EBU has done so little to protect the artists and press from this poor excuse of whatever they were trying to do.
According to a reporter, after every rehearsal, Joost would come down and talk to everyone from kids to adults. He would shout at the kids telling them they鈥檙e the future and give everyone big hugs.
finland wins, they disqualify israel and azerbaijan for 2024, joost is performing and gets 600 points from the televoters, whole europe is singing and crying europapa, life is great
Their first mistake was allowing Itsnotreal to compete, and then banning Joost Klein who did nothing wrong?? I can't see Eurovision recovering from this ever.