OPINION: Europe’s lack of vision in not seeing Israel’s Eden Golan as a person
Booed. Threatened. Intimidated. Attacking Eden will not bring about a ceasefire or a future two-state solution. The only thing it achieves is stoking more hostility.
Eden Golan, Israel’s 2024 entry to the Eurovision contest, is a person.
Mazal Tazazo and Millet Ben Haim, who both visited Parliament this week as survivors of the Nova music festival, are people.
The women raped, tortured, kidnapped, murdered, are all individual people.
Their families, who have lost loved ones, or desperately clinging on to hope that their children/brothers/sisters/parents will be returned, are all persons.
At some point since 7th October, and one can argue on 7th October, groups of people stopped seeing Israelis and Jews as individual people, but rather a group of people, separate from humanity, who deserved to be attacked.
People are suffering on both sides of the border, and Jews are suffering worldwide with a staggering rise in antisemitism. When one stops seeing people as individuals, there is no hope for humanity and peace. People excuse their acts of racism and violence through dehumanisation which is dangerous and destructive.
Eden Golan is 20 years old. A young person with dreams and aspirations like all of us. As the Eurovision Song Contest takes place in Malmo, Sweden – where contestants don’t take themselves seriously, and it is one great party of freedom and self-expression – Eden’s security team are taking things seriously.
Eden has been met with countless protests and has been told to stay in her hotel room as a security measure, missing fan events that her fellow contenders are able to attend without fear.
Eden was taken by police convoy with a helicopter overhead to the semi-finals where she was booed on stage, with the Greek contestant faking sleep when Eden spoke.
The Finnish contestant was forced to come out with a statement after a video appeared of him dancing with Eden backstage.
Eden is 20. She is a person. This protest is not an attack against Israel but against her, and it is racist.
Would you find it acceptable for people to protest your daughter when she is singing, for people to deny the sexual abuse and torture she endured, for people to call for Israel to put down its weapons without calling for the release of hostages still held in Gaza or for Hamas to disarm?
None of it is acceptable. These protests have become violent and nasty, dehumanising a whole nation, a whole religion.
Peace can only come about when people co-exist, when people are able to see each individual person, who in turn makes up a nation.
Attacking Eden will not bring about a ceasefire or a future two-state solution. The only thing it achieves is stoking more hostility.
Maybe if people start seeing Eden as a 20 year old person, and hostages as people with families, friends and hobbies, then maybe we may just accomplish a better future.
Dehumanising only shows your inhumanity.
Good luck Eden!
- Rachel Blain, Public Affairs Director, Conservative Friends of Israel
Thank you for helping to make Jewish News the leading source of news and opinion for the UK Jewish community. Today we're asking for your invaluable help to continue putting our community first in everything we do.
For as little as £5 a month you can help sustain the vital work we do in celebrating and standing up for Jewish life in Britain.
Jewish News holds our community together and keeps us connected. Like a synagogue, it’s where people turn to feel part of something bigger. It also proudly shows the rest of Britain the vibrancy and rich culture of modern Jewish life.
You can make a quick and easy one-off or monthly contribution of £5, £10, £20 or any other sum you’re comfortable with.
100% of your donation will help us continue celebrating our community, in all its dynamic diversity...
Engaging
Being a community platform means so much more than producing a newspaper and website. One of our proudest roles is media partnering with our invaluable charities to amplify the outstanding work they do to help us all.
Celebrating
There’s no shortage of oys in the world but Jewish News takes every opportunity to celebrate the joys too, through projects like Night of Heroes, 40 Under 40 and other compelling countdowns that make the community kvell with pride.
Pioneering
In the first collaboration between media outlets from different faiths, Jewish News worked with British Muslim TV and Church Times to produce a list of young activists leading the way on interfaith understanding.
Campaigning
Royal Mail issued a stamp honouring Holocaust hero Sir Nicholas Winton after a Jewish News campaign attracted more than 100,000 backers. Jewish Newsalso produces special editions of the paper highlighting pressing issues including mental health and Holocaust remembrance.
Easy access
In an age when news is readily accessible, Jewish News provides high-quality content free online and offline, removing any financial barriers to connecting people.
Voice of our community to wider society
The Jewish News team regularly appears on TV, radio and on the pages of the national press to comment on stories about the Jewish community. Easy access to the paper on the streets of London also means Jewish News provides an invaluable window into the community for the country at large.
We hope you agree all this is worth preserving.
