The Dutch public voted collectively last night in favor of Israel’s participation in the Eurovision Song Contest. Israel also received the maximum number of points of twelve from audiences in several other European countries. Many professional juries gave the country zero points.
Israel finished fifth yesterday, and Switzerland won the Eurovision Song Contest. But if you look closely at the point distribution, you’ll notice something special. There was enormous popular support for Israel’s entry in fourteen European countries.
In addition to the Netherlands, voters from Belgium, Germany, France, Sweden, Spain, England and Finland also gave twelve points to Israel. Voters from Portugal, Italy, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Australia and “the rest of the world” also gave Israel the highest marks.
There was an uproar among the audience during the Israeli show. There were boos, and Urubaba’s voice could also be heard:
It is not clear what percentage of voters saw Israel as the best. The organizer of the Eurovision Song Contest, the EBU, only announces the number of points (from 0 to 12) awarded by all countries.
After the semi-final match, Italian television mistakenly leaked the exact percentage of Italians who voted for Israel. This turned out to be 39.3 percent.
“Cannot vote against vote.”
“You can’t vote against a song and just vote for it,” Eurovision Song Contest commentator Cornald Maas explained at the time. “And I think there will definitely be a lot of sympathy for this song, maybe even politically.”
Lunicki Havemann, who followed the Eurovision Song Contest for RTL News, also described the overwhelming support from Italians as fantastic. “If you are very pro-Israel, you vote for Israel,” Haveman explained. “If you’re against Israel, you vote for one of the other 25 songs. So the opposition vote is very split.”
Verdict by a professional jury
In fact, many professional juries gave the Israeli song poor ratings. At least 25 countries awarded Israel zero points, including the Dutch jury. Israel also received zero points, for example, from Swedish, Spanish, Ukrainian, Danish and Finnish juries. No professional jury has awarded Israel twelve points.
