What's Wrong with Eurovision in Israel?

What’s wrong with Eurovision coming to Israel? Let me count the ways.

Israel isn’t a part of Europe. Competing in European sports leagues and song competitions isn’t going to change that. They’ll never accept us as being part of them (even VICE thinks it’s ridiculous) and we shouldn’t want to be accepted as part of them. Europe (the dying remnants of the Roman Empire) represents everything that is antithetical to our culture: a value system based on the foundations of an idolatrous religion, an economic system based on oppression, individualism at the expense of the collective, a breed of “universalism” that’s actually forced uniformity and “multiculturalism” that’s really just Western capitalist values expressed with various accents and cuisines. European isn’t who we are and pretending it is will only make it harder to decolonize our identities and easier for our neighbors to mistake us for foreign invaders in the Middle East. Europeans themselves at best see us as cheap facsimiles of themselves – which no one really likes or respects.
It necessitates work on Shabbat. Yes, the competitions are on Saturday night, but the preparations necessary to host the event will almost definitely be done before Shabbat ends. As explained in this article, having a state-mandated day off protects workers from coerced labor. While I doubt that actual slave labor will be employed (after all, Eurovision requires less construction than the Olympics), I don’t think that coerced labor on a national weekly day off should be even our lowest standard for workers’ rights.
It’ll cost money. A lot of money. Whether they build a whole new arena or rework an existing one, it’s going to cost money. If I had to guess, that money is probably going to come from aggressive policing like cracking down on parking and jaywalking tickets. Yes, the tourism will bring in money (assuming people don’t boycott the competition, and let’s face it, many probably will), but if historical data is any indication, we’ll come out with less. There’s a reason many countries send their worst songs to Eurovision – they know it’s not worth it to win. Add it’ll also make traveling expenses to Israel even higher right around the time of our Shavuot festival, which means that there will be a lot of Jews who won’t be able to make it to Jerusalem for the holiday.
It will negatively impact the lives of people who live in Jerusalem (or Tel Aviv, if we’re forced to host it there). Having the Giro d’Italia in Jerusalem a few months ago was terrible. It only lasted a few days, but Jerusalem residents – who pay property taxes by the way – could barely walk around their own neighborhoods. Parents couldn’t pick up their children from nursery. People had a hard time leaving and entering the city for Shabbat. I myself couldn’t cross the street to get back home from work. And Eurovision lasts much longer than two days. Jerusalem isn’t a huge expansive city like those in Europe – we have limited space and ancient urban planning. And to be honest, we just don’t have room for the residents AND the tens of thousands of loud drunken tourists who would come.
A huge portion of our population doesn’t want it in our country. Eurovision is very promiscuous. Most of the more traditional Israelis and Palestinians are very uncomfortable with the types of activities that occur at Eurovision. Many of the more westernized elites tend to forget that this country really is for ALL of its citizens, and even those with whom they disagree should be respected. Eurovision is just downright disrespectful to a large group of people (and often to women and humanity in general).