Thousands protest Israel's Eurovision participation in Vienna

Thousands of people took to the streets in Vienna on Saturday to protest Israel’s participation in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, as the grand finale is set to kick off in the Austrian capital in the next few hours.

This year’s event is caught up in a geopolitical storm, as five countries are boycotting the contest over Israel’s participation. The countries say their decision is due to Israel’s war in Gaza and the resulting humanitarian crisis it has triggered.

A number of demonstrations and events were planned in Vienna this week to protest Israel’s participation in the song contest, culminating in the large march that took place on Saturday.

Event organizers estimate the crowd size surpassed five thousand. Other reported estimates placed the final turnout between hundreds and thousands.

Vienna police declined to comment on the demonstration, or the size of the crowd that turned out, but police lined the demonstration route and a helicopter circled overhead on Saturday.

The crowd marched through Vienna chanting “boycott Israel, boycott ESC [Eurovision Song Contest]” and “no stage for genocide,” finishing up near the Weiner Stadthalle stadium where tonight’s final will take place. Two protesters scaled the scaffolding of a nearby building to hang a Palestinian flag, drawing cheers from the crowd.

Wilhelm Langthaler, a member of Palestine Solidarity Austria which helped organize this week’s anti-Eurovision demonstration, told POLITICO that the main message is for Israel to be excluded from the song contest.

“The idea is there should be no stage for genocide,” he said. He said that although Eurovision is a “small event” in the grand scale of things, if Israel is allowed to participate, it “symbolically stands” for the “disaster and catastrophe” in Gaza being supported by other countries.

The vice president of the Vienna police, Dieter Csefan, previously told POLITICO that security measures around the contest go “far beyond the usual level,” but that “security of the song contest and the right to freedom of assembly are not inherently in conflict.”

Norbert Kettner, chief executive of Vienna’s tourism board, told POLITICO that security measures around the city are “much more intense” than the last time Eurovision was hosted here in 2015.

“Yes, the security measures are extremely high. No big event in the free world can be made anymore without high security levels,” Kettner said, adding that the city is working to “protect people who want to celebrate peacefully, but also protect people who want demonstrate peacefully.”

He added that across the week, the energy among fans from different countries has been “peaceful and moderate.”

Eurovision’s organizer, the European Broadcasting Union, has repeatedly underlined that the song contest is apolitical, and that any broadcaster can take part as long as they follow EBU rules.

Speaking at a press conference on Saturday evening, the director general of Austria’s public broadcaster (ORF), Ingrid Thurnher, addressed the protest. She said everybody has the right to their opinion, and “that’s the nature of democracy,” but as the final is tonight the focus should be on the stage.

“We would really like for a couple of hours to have music, have the whole attention at this Eurovision Song Contest. Everybody’s heard, everybody has his right to say his opinion tonight, but it’s the musicians who take the voice on this stage,” she said.