Israelis planning on traveling to Sweden for this year’s Eurovision Song Contest should do so with extreme caution, Israel’s National Security Council (NSC) warned on Thursday.
“We are not saying not to travel there, but those who travel should not display their Zionism,” said an NSC official. “They shouldn’t walk around with little Israeli flags,” the official explained, adding, “you can speak Hebrew with each other, but you don’t have to shout to family or friends at the other end of the street.”
The primary threat Israelis face is Iran and its proxies, the NSC warns. There are also growing attempts by global jihadist organizations to use the Gaza war as inspiration for lone attacks on Jews. Amid these security concerns, the NSC also identified several countries, including Turkey, Morocco, Jordan, and Egypt, as destinations where Israelis should exercise extra caution.
“What has been published is just the tip of the iceberg,” said the NSC official.
Even though the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) has reiterated that the Eurovision Song Contest remains a non-political event, it hasn’t stopped the masses in the host city from calling on Israel to drop out of the competition. More than 1,000 Swedish artists, including international acts like Fever Ray and Robyn, as well as Eurovision veterans, signed an open letter in early March calling for Israel’s exclusion, citing “gross war crimes” by the Israeli army in Gaza.
