Israel is under the threat of disqualification due to a "politicized" song: The media showed the lyrics that they are afraid to allow to Eurovision 2024

Israel is under threat of disqualification from the Eurovision Song Contest 2024. The European broadcaster's fears about the "politicized" song have allegedly been confirmed, and now the country is being forced to change the lyrics of the contest track "October Rain."

The title itself hints that it refers to the tragic October events of 2023 when Hamas militants shelled Israeli cities and attacked the country's residents. Israel Hayom journalists received the lyrics to the controversial song.

The Israeli participant, Eden Golan, will sing it in two languages - English and Hebrew. The last three lines of the song "describe the condition of the Israeli civilian population during the attack," the publication writes.

"No air to breathe

There's no place to go,

I'm gone from day to day," the verse says.

The track ends with the quiet words "They were all good kids, every single one of them," which seems to allude to the murdered Israeli residents.

"In one of the verses, Eden Golan sings the word 'flowers'. In this context, every Israeli knows that in IDF slang it means soldiers fallen in battle, but for European viewers, it may not necessarily have a political connotation," the journalists emphasized.

However, the European broadcaster seems to have understood the context well, so the song has not yet been approved. The sources told Ynet that the EBU intends to disqualify the track, but they made it clear that they would not change their mind under any circumstances.

The day before, the board of the Israeli broadcaster urgently convened, and the following statement was made: "We will not change a single word, even at the cost of Israel's non-participation in this year's Eurovision Song Contest."

As a reminder, Eden Golan's entry was supposed to be made public last week, but the premiere was postponed at the request of the European broadcaster. They wanted to make sure that the track would not contain political statements, as Eurovision is an apolitical contest.

The Commission had a long time to choose between the two songs and settled on "October Rain."

The whole scandal is taking place against the backdrop of repeated calls to disqualify Israel because of the war. Many countries have compared the fighting against Hamas to the war in Ukraine and even threatened to withdraw from the show if Israel is allowed to participate.

The broadcaster ignores these criticisms, saying that the war in Ukraine and Israel are not similar.

Meanwhile, the odds of Israel's victory are steadily declining, and it has dropped to seventh place in the bookmakers' rankings, although it was in third place a few days ago.

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