Israel to revise Eurovision entry alluding to Hamas attacks

Israel said on Sunday it had asked lyricists to revise its proposed Eurovision song contest entry, potentially averting a dispute with organizers over political content.

Authorities said last week that Israel would not be able to participate in this year’s popular competition if organizers refused to choose the song, which reportedly references the victims of Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack in southern Israel that sparked the ongoing war in Gaza.

Eurovision rules prohibit political content.

Israeli public broadcaster Naoto Kan said in a statement on Sunday that President Isaac Herzog called for “necessary adjustments” to ensure Israel’s participation in the tournament, which it has won four times.

This year’s competition is scheduled to take place in Sweden in May.

The Israeli broadcaster “contacted the lyricists of the two selected songs, first for “October Rain” and second for “Dance Forever,” and asked them to rework the lyrics while retaining their artistic freedom,” the statement said .

“Among the new texts that will be presented, Kan will select the songs that will be sent to the Eurovision Song Contest Supervisory Committee in order for it to approve Israel’s participation in the competition.”

The selected song will be sung by 20-year-old Russian-Israeli singer Eden Golan and will be announced on March 10, the statement said.

One of the original lyrics of “October Rain” reads: “They are all good kids, every one of them.”

The song ends with “No air to breathe, no place for me,” according to Kan, and the company has posted the full lyrics on its website.

Israel became the first non-European country to enter Eurovision in 1973, and its participation and hosting of the event has often been controversial.

In 2019, Icelandic band Hatari challenged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to a Nordic folk wrestling match and issued a pro-Palestinian statement during the vote count in Tel Aviv.

Organizers also criticized US pop icon Madonna for flouting political neutrality rules by her dancers wearing Israeli and Palestinian flags on their costumes.

This year’s competition is being held against the backdrop of war, with Hamas attacks killing around 1,160 people in Israel, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Israeli officials said the militants also took about 250 hostages, 130 of whom are still being held in Gaza, but 31 hostages are believed to have died.

Israel’s military response has killed at least 30,410 people in Gaza, according to the Health Ministry of the Hamas-controlled territory.

Naoto Kan said late last month that he had “no intention of changing the song” and threatened to withdraw unless the European Broadcasting Union, which oversees the song competition, approves his entry.

But Herzog “stressed that it is at a time when those who hate us seek to suppress and boycott the State of Israel” that the country “must speak loud and clear in every world forum,” Kan said in a statement on Sunday explain.