Israeli government called for votes on Eurovision entry: “This is not a drill”

The State of Israel called for votes for the Israeli entry during the semi-finals of the Eurovision Song Contest. The social media accounts have many followers from other countries. “This is the moment, on the biggest stage in the world.”

“The lines are open, don’t forget to vote.” And: “This is not a drill, voice Eden.” Through its official social media accounts, the State of Israel called on everyone on Thursday evening to vote for the Israeli entry. Israel has many followers who do not live in Israel and can therefore vote for an Israeli entry.

On Instagram, where @stateofisrael has 1.4 million followers, he posted no fewer than sixteen stories and eight messages. The official Tiktok account (800,000 followers) distributed four videos with “vote #14” and 25 messages appeared on X.

“Eden stands for everything we love in our country,” it was said beforehand. “This is the moment, on the largest stage in the world,” the official images say. “Don’t forget to share.” (read more below the message)

Striking: many embassies in European countries also spread a message to vote. That of the Belgian ambassador took advantage of the VRT’s industrial action, after which a pancarte with stopgenocide appeared before the start of the broadcast.

“Shame on you, VRT,” wrote Idit Rosenzweig-Abu. “To counterbalance these despicable people who took over TV airtime to show anti-Israel lies to Eurovision viewers: vote #14 for Eden.” (read more below the post)

It is not certain whether and to what extent these actions on social media also had an effect. After the broadcast, the Italian broadcaster did show a list of figures showing that Israel received almost 40% of the votes. The first pursuer ended up with 7%. Normally you will only see the results of the semi-finals after the final on Saturday evening. (kba)