"If there is outrage to be expressed, it would be that Israel would cynically deploy the trauma of a young woman to try to shield itself from international criticism on the world stage."
To the Editor
Marsha Lederman expresses her outrage that a “young woman (who) survived a massacre” was greeted with protests in this year’s Eurovision contest. Lederman attempts to frame these protests as a personal attack on a traumatized victim.
But Yuval Raphael did not appear at Eurovision in a personal capacity. She represented the state of Israel which is presently conducting a genocide in Gaza as part of its ongoing campaign to ethnically cleanse the Palestinian territories which it illegally occupies. The protests were not about Yuval Raphael. They were about Israel’s criminal behaviour in Gaza.
If there is outrage to be expressed, it would be that Israel would cynically deploy the trauma of a young woman to try to shield itself from international criticism on the world stage.
When Russia invaded the Ukraine in 2022, it was immediately banned from participating in Eurovision. The protests this year were secondarily about Eurovision’s hypocritical double standard, allowing an Israeli representative to compete, while the country’s military murders and starves defenseless people in Gaza.
The attempt to personalize this issue as a matter of one person’s trauma, is part of an Israeli propaganda campaign that directs us to look away from the many thousands of Palestinian children who have been traumatized, maimed, blown to bits, or suffocated under the rubble of their own homes as a result of Israeli bombardment.
Sincerely
Tim McCaskell