An freshly coined acronym came to light a few months into the military campaign against Gaza. Known as WCNSF, it signifies “Child casualty without any family left”. This term is found only in Gaza, per insights from medical experts like paediatricians. Typically, it is uncommon for medical staff to attend to a young patient who has lost their whole family. But, there has been no semblance of normality regarding the genocide in Gaza, where whole bloodlines have been obliterated and the number of children who have lost limbs surpasses that of any other place in the world. No sense of normalcy about scores of doctors coming back from a devastated terrain with reports of children being systematically aimed at.
The Gaza Strip continues to be a profound humanitarian disaster. Essential medical supplies are being blocked those in need, and major human rights organizations have stated that violations are ongoing. The Israeli government rejects these claims, consistent with how it disavows everything it is implicated in. Meanwhile, while traumatised orphans are now suffering from the cold in improvised encampments, there is some ostensibly positive news: apparently nothing is going to stop the Eurovision from continuing with its declared purpose of “unity and artistic sharing.” The contest will continue to extend a welcoming platform for Israel, although at least four European countries have now pulled out in protest. And this, it seems, is what global togetherness manifests as.
Historically, Eurovision excluded Russia from competing in 2022 over the “serious conflict in Ukraine”. Yet the conflict in Gaza is completely different.
Overlook the circumstance that Israel was criticized for irregular participation methods last year in what appears to have been an bid to manipulate Eurovision. Set aside the news that a toddler was allegedly fatally struck in Gaza recently. Pay no mind to the evidence that aggression from Israeli settlers and systematic expulsions in the West Bank have increased dramatically. Overlook the situation that foreign reporters are still denied unfettered access in Gaza. This entire context, it would seem, should be seen as a barrier of Eurovision’s self-proclaimed spirit of unity.
The contest turns 70 next year – nearly twice the current lifespan of an individual in Gaza at present. The broadcast will air, but it will find it impossible to reclaim the whimsical pleasure it historically embodied. A contest that initially championed harmony has transformed into a cynical way to sanitize military aggression.
