Despite Hostilities, The Eurovision Song Contest Shone One Small Light For Israel
Eden Golan united Jews across the world amid the worst month of Jew-hate in decades
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No need for big words
only prayers,
even if it’s hard to see
you always show me one small light. — From “Hurricane” by Eden Golan
If you have heard Israel’s powerful entry for the Eurovision Song Contest, Hurricane, you may recall that the last few lines are like a quiet epilogue in Hebrew, reserved for the Israeli people. It’s hard to forget, really, given that was the point in the second semi-final rehearsal that the booing from the crowd rose to a crescendo. Though it’s plausible that the booing drowned out Eden Golan’s voice and obscured the words to the point of them being unrecognisable as any language whatsoever.
The words translate as:
No need for big words
only prayers,
even if it’s hard to see
you always show me one small light.
One small light.
It’s the thing Jews in Israel, and those in the diaspora who have a connection to the country, have been desperately clinging to for the last seven months.
One small light.
A small light of hope. Of a chance of peace. Of signs of life and a return of the innocent hostages taken into Gaza last October. Of a chance at being given recognition as a people with a right to a homeland, separate from the hate and politics and violence.
That small light shows up in many ways, though we sometimes have to look hard. It comes in the form of Jewish people linking arms and rising up in support of one another. It comes in the form of a non-Jew who steps forward and proclaims their support of Jewish people. It comes in the form of small yet significant triumphs in the world, such as an international dance competition win or a Euro Basket qualifier match win — especially in the face of blatant antisemitism on the part of the opposing team.
Yes, Ireland’s women’s basketball team, I’m looking at you.
Sadly many of these small lights we have been shown have been ruses, leaving us flat and hopeless when we and all the innocent people of the Levant should be feeling hope. The promise of potential deals, seeing the return of the hostages, a chance of resuming a state of non-conflict and working towards new avenues to a peaceful co-existence of Palestinians and Israelis — all promises that end at…nothing.
Hope flutters out of the window once more. We have nothing to hold onto, except that tiny chance of being shown one small light in the darkness, so we keep searching nonetheless.
The fact that Eden Golan and her song, Hurricane, made it to the finals of the Eurovision Song Contest was one small light. But in its surroundings, it really was small. Tiny, in fact.
For months, organisations and political movements have tried to prevent Israel from being allowed to participate in the contest, on the grounds of the military attack on Gaza. These requests were overruled but that hasn’t prevented accusations of double standards considering the banning of Russia in 2022 following the country’s invasion of Ukraine.
One would be led to consider that the two wars are not seen in the same light by the board of the European Broadcasting Union. Perhaps that’s due to the inconclusiveness of what, if any war crimes have been committed, and the strong evidence against the claims that the Israel is committing genocide, along with the fact that the war began with an attack on Israel. And the missiles continue to be fired at it from all its hostile borders. It’s a very different story than that of Russia.
But Eden’s success at coming through and being able to participate in the contest has come at a huge cost. The Israeli broadcasting company, KAN, gave clear instructions to her and her team to isolate themselves and remain in their hotel rooms when not in rehearsal or performance, the fear for her safety was so high. There they have remained for almost the entire time, surrounded by high level security. Then came the booing while she performed with beauty and grace on the stage, not only during the dress rehearsal but every. single. performance.
Meanwhile, out on the streets of Malmo, the city that hosted this year’s event following Sweden’s win last year, protests were taking place throughout the week while Eden Golan was in residence there. During the evening of the second semi-final, when Golan was performing, an offshoot of an already sanctioned protest showed up in full force, calling for the boycott of Israel and repeating the violent calls for an intifada.
The biggest protest, numbering over 10,000 people, took place on the day of the final. The people protesting were so inflamed and persistent that Jews across the city were advised to evacuate their homes, for fear of their lives, and Israeli fans were told to stay away altogether.
Incidentally, everyone’s favourite Swedish symbol of left wing activism, Greta Thunberg, who had been present at every protest during the week, was arrested and carted off by the Swedish police.
And yet, again we are being told that this is not antisemitism. Just like the students at university campuses across the world are claiming their protests are peaceful and unthreatening to Jews while calling for Israel to be erased, Tel Aviv burned to the ground, and anyone sporting a Star of David is called a Zionist murderer. Again our voices are being dismissed in some idiotic form of gaslighting that no one believes except those spouting the same rhetoric. And yet the police and security are telling Jews they’ll be in danger should they be seen to be “openly” Jewish or heard speaking Hebrew.
While a beautiful 20-year-old with a song-writing talent and a voice to die for was being threatened as if she was some form of evil, Jews, both Israeli and Swedish, were considered to be at great risk of being victims of violence. Of all the cities where a controversial Israeli presence may cause tensions, the city that happened to host the event this year is one that has already proven itself numerous times to be a cauldron of antisemitic, anti-Israel friction. There are government files documenting the day-to-day antisemitism in the city but these days it’s becoming crippling for those Jews who want to openly express their Judaism.
And yet people everywhere are cowering from being seen to show any support or recognition of Israel or those who avidly support and love the nation.
I mean, does no one see the absolute hypocrisy in all of this?
No, Eden Golan is not an evil product of a fascist, murderous dictatorship, no matter what TikTok or YouTube video you have been watching.
She’s a human being whose country, back on October 7th, suffered the worst massacre of its people since the holocaust. And even then the holocaust itself, when six million lives were brutally taken for no reason other than their ethnicity, took such an enormous proportion of Jewish lives that even now, 79 years since WWII ended, the Jewish population remains smaller than before the war.
Hello, ethnic cleansing?
Eden, like the people in all of Israel — Jews, Arabs, Christian and Druze alike — is hurting. Her song is an expression of what the country has been feeling. There’s no hate. There’s no blame. There’s no vengeance. There’s just sadness, which has been the overriding emotion of Israelis and those members of the Jewish community and allies who identify with Israel.
Golan’s participation in the contest was a means by which to be seen and heard by the world. (Let’s not pretend here that although she changed the song title from October Rain to Hurricane, along with some of the lyrics, in order to satisfy the Eurovision board that the song isn’t political, it’s still obviously a reference to that horrendous day in October.) And, to be honest, being heard and seen is all most of us want, at a time when the noise of “From the River to the Sea” and calls for an intifada drowns out any chance of Jewish, Israeli human voices to be heard, hurting for their people.
The people, the artists, the youth who were “dancing in the storm… [with] nothing to hide” as Golan’s song goes, do not deserve to be made accountable for the decisions of the Israeli government. And certainly shouldn’t be made to blame for the brutal murders and rapes of their own friends and family.
So to make it to the finals was immense. More than that, we saw the Israeli entry go from the 17th favourite to win to number 7 within a few days, reaching number 2 by the day of the final. Why? Because the song is strong and Eden is exceptional. But also because we see her — we see all she had to deal with to be there to represent her country, doing so with immense grace and dignity — and support her.
The judging was telling. Many, many countries dismissed Israel altogether. And it wasn’t because her song and her performance weren’t outstanding. You don’t have to be that switched on to realise that countries often choose their favourites based on matters other than the song and the performance. Israel included. After all, they gave their biggest vote to Luxembourg, the only other country with an Israeli singer. (She and Eden spent a good deal of the evening together, joyous in one another’s company)
But it was the people’s votes that came through for Eden Golan, ranking second highest from the public voting and fifth overall. The Jewish community and allies came together and pulled out all the stops to show Eden how loved she is.
She didn’t win. But she performed with everything she had. She showed up to the best of her ability, giving a flawless performance. And the Israeli people and their allies stand proud of everything she went though to be there — exhibiting the resilience that is characteristic of the Jewish people in all their thousands of years of surviving condemnation and persecution.
Eden Golan held up a light in the face of one of the worst months of antisemitic protests in decades. She held up a light for the Israeli people, and the Jews in the diaspora felt that light in huge waves. It meant the world to us.
We don’t want fighting. We don’t want deaths. But we will not stand for people to call for the destruction of us, or the nation that became the much-needed refuge for Jews across the world. That light is a light of possibility — for peace for all people. Because that’s what the overwhelming majority of Jews across Israel and the world call for. We’re not brutes, Nazis, fascists or murderers, plotting to take over the world. We’re a humble, smart, heart-centred bunch for the most part, and we just ask the world to listen to our hearts.
Yet that one small light remains just one small light. It’s not growing any bigger and it’s not multiplying. The light glimmers but grows no brighter. Not yet, anyway.
We have much more we will have to face before this bout of resistance to us is over.
That one small light gave us hope, but we need more. We need more lights, and we need them to grow.
But that one small light was enough to keep us going. And believing that it may yet happen.
