11:07AM
The Teapacks: Push the button
Issandr El Amrani
The Israeli band The Teapacks' song "Push the button" may be banned from the Eurovision song contest for being too political. I think the song is funny and in parts catchy (I love the gypsy folk music accordion thing) and should not be banned, but then again I don't think the Israelis should be allowed to contest Eurovision generally for political reasons and because they are not Europeans.
Either way, this is a clever PR coup from the Israeli officials who presented the song to Eurovision -- but don't see it as anything more than that.
Either way, this is a clever PR coup from the Israeli officials who presented the song to Eurovision -- but don't see it as anything more than that.
Reader Comments (19)
Several Middle Eastern countries are eligible to participate. It's not an exclusively European thing any more.
Israel should most certainly be allowed to participate in Eurovision!
The most reliable determination of what continent a country belongs to remains FIFA, the world's soccer/football confederation. The Israelis qualify for the World Cup through the European bracket, the toughest, and their professional teams play in the UEFA Cup and the European Champions' League. Thus, Israel is as much a part of Europe for these purposes as Cyprus, Armenia, Turkey, or Kazakhstan.
The same thing applies to Eurovision. What, are the Israelis supposed to go on Star Academy instead? That will be the day!
Well I think major sports associations should boycott Israel until it ends the occupation, like South Africa in the 1980s. Same applies for Eurovision.
(Yes Darfurheads, I would say the same for Sudan.)
According to this story, Egypt is part of the "European Broadcasting Union." Morocco and Jordan are in as well.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/03/02/news/mideast.php
And frankly, there's at least as good an argument for banning Egypt on the basis of its human rights record. Actually, Russia is in there as well and I'd argue that Russia is a worse human rights violator than the entire Middle East put together (apart from Hama in 1982, when has any Arab, Israeli or Turkish government ever done anything to a large city resembling what the Russians have done to Grozny?).
Boycotting countries based on human rights is a great idea, but when you want to put it into practice it's depressingly difficult to know where to stop.
as funny as this song is, Israel should NOT be allowed to participate in the Eurovision song contest. How Israel constitutes Europe is beyond me, let alone the fact that the countries sovereignty is constantly questioned when it is bulldozing its way into Palestinian land!
however, you can see the logic..if Israel were to participate in a Middle Eastern song contest, it would almost certainly lose to the likes of Rachid Taha and Haifa Wehbe!
Actually, according to the theory that Zionism and Israel is little more than the ultimate distillation of the European Imperialistic Endeavor and the state itself was created as a kind of Western cat's paw in the heart of the Middle East to control its peoples... well then it makes plenty of sense which soccer tournaments and song contests they compete in.
Well, normally I'd agree that Israel has no place in the Eurovision contest (I thought the whole idea of Zionism was to get the Jews out of Europe... now people get pissy when Europe says, 'um actually, you're in the Middle East?'), but Eurovision should make an exception for this song for the simple reason that it's a much better song than anything entered in Eurovision to date.
You chaps were just hooked from the first "tehrorh" and "ehrorh" line, weren't you>
I can't recall ever having seen Egypt or Jordan in the festival, but I tell you, if they get Nancy to go on the show, they'll win hands down. She's schlager material...
Otherwise, instead of banning Israel's participation because of either their politics or their lyrics, I think a good catch-all option would be to ban the entire Eurovision spectacle. For quality reasons. Second to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it is the world's longest-running international disaster.
One of the MAIN reasons Israel is grouped with Europeans in sports competitions is because many Muslim countries do not recognize Israel and refuse to participate in any event of that sort.
Amen, Alle.
god help me, but is IS really really catchy. I fear Ill be humming it tomorrow
I love your unbiased comment: "this is a clever PR coup from the Israeli officials who presented the song to Eurovision".
Was it only Israeli officials who were allowed to participate in the telephone vote on Israeli television?
Could it possibly be that the reason ordinary Israelis voted so overwhelmingly for this song was because it resonated with some genuine fears that they hold and which most thinking people find totally understandable?
This shows the emotions of Isearlis. They think that their survival is tied up with that of their state. The Zionist lobby anounced that it was anti-Jewish to Boycott German Goods at the time of the Zionist Nazi Trade Agreement. Nothing has changed; the slow, Zionist genocide is ongoing.
All the members of Teapacks are Sephardi Jews from the impoverished town of Sderot. They are all of Moroccan descent and are therefore Jewish Arabs.
roger, dear, if israel wanted to kill all pals now, or, destroy its neighbors- it could do it by now
:)
this song criticizes the government of israel, as well, my friends.
Morocco 1980 eurovision entry, samira said - bitaqat hob
Nothing has changed; the slow, Zionist genocide is ongoing
So slow in fact that the Palestinian population has risen from about half a million to about 4 million.
Eurovision decided to allow the song after all.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=837759&contrassID=1&subContrassID=1