Israel passes Eurovision despite messages about the Gaza conflict

BarcelonaNew day will rise (in English, A New Day Will Be Born) is the song Israel will be performing at this year's Eurovision Song Contest. It will be performed by Yuval Raphael, a 24-year-old survivor of the Hamas attacks on October 7, 2023, where the armed group attacked a Nova music festival. The Jerusalem Post and several internet users have detected metaphors in the song's lyrics and music video, where young people are seen in nature, celebrating, and singing, which remind them of the Nova festivalgoers. At another point, young people are also seen running through the fields, just as the festivalgoers fled, although in the music video they run towards a beach, and the singer also appears under a light in the darkness.

The song is performed in three languages: English, French, and Hebrew, and was composed by Keren Peles, who also wrote Israel's song last year. Hurricane, which also had references to October 7 and passed censorship. The singer has offered her testimony on several occasions, such as in 2024 at the UN Human Rights Council: "I witnessed unspeakable horrors. Friends and foreigners were injured or died before my eyes. When the bodies of the murdered people fell beneath us." Israeli Culture Minister Miki Zohar told the singer: "We were all moved by your story, which accompanies your representation of the State of Israel during this period. The people of Israel are with you, go face Europe and show them that even from the most difficult place a new day will be born."

The song has verses such as "A new day will be born, life will go on. Everyone cries, don't cry alone. The darkness will fade, all the pain will pass, but we will stay even if you say goodbye," which seems to reference the war. The song includes a verse from the Song of Solomon, "Many waters cannot quench love, nor rivers drown it."

The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) has not censored the Israeli song, but it has censored the Maltese song. Kant. According to the EBU, the pronunciation of the single word in the title may recall a double meaning of the same word in English, as the song's chorus says "Serving Kant", which sounds just like "serving cunt(in English, to serve pussy). In Maltese, however, Kant It means to sing, and singer Miriana Conte has asserted that the song "is serving as a song." The Maltese public broadcaster has denounced the Eurovision ban because it "censors and discriminates against the Maltese language."