The tantrums over Eden Golan epitomised the childishness of performative protest
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This is an expanded version of my column in The Times of London (£) today.
When the Irish Eurovision contestant, Bambie Thug, failed to bully Israel’s competitor out of the contest being staged in the Swedish town of Malmö, Thug did what today’s culture warriors feel is an appropriate reaction when they don’t get their way. The singer had a meltdown and burst into tears.
Thug, a “non-binary” individual who performed a pagan satanic routine as a kind of goblinesque Goth, had demanded that Israel’s entrant, Eden Golan, be barred from the contest because… well, because of course all Israelis everywhere should be shunned and hounded and cancelled by the entire human race because of the war in Gaza.
Asked how it had felt when Golan qualified for the contest’s final, the goblin replied, choking back the tears, “I cried with my team”.
Of course! Because the protest was all about them, to demonstrate their virtue as victims of… well, Israel’s existence, not to put too fine a point on it; and to demonstrate the frankly intolerable human cost to themselves of their principled stand of resistance. “The world has spoken!” cried Thug triumphantly, gulping back principled sobs.
Except the world hadn’t quite said what Thug — speaking from within the alternative universe where Israel’s fight for its life against a genocidal enemy is itself denounced as an act of genocide — thought the world had said.
Because in the real world people had seen something rather different. They saw a vast mob on the streets of Malmö supporting the “Palestinian resistance” — ie terrorism against Israeli Jews — and besieging a young Israeli singer to force her out of the contest.
They saw that this young woman was unable to leave her hotel room because of the threats against her of kidnap, rape and murder.
They saw that more than 100 police officers, a motorcade and a helicopter were needed to escort her to the competition venue. They saw this wasn’t a protest but a potential lynch mob.
After the final, Israel’s security service, the Shin Bet, revealed pictures and details of the extraordinary security operation it had mounted to keep Golan safe, with its agents escorting her everywhere and even positioning themselves close to the stage.
Backstage, Golan was subjected to an unremitting campaign of shunning and abuse from fellow contestants. From the rehearsals to the final, she was forced to sing her song of Israeli pain — reflecting the enduring trauma of the October 7 Hamas pogrom in southern Israel — to an accompaniment of booing and chants for “Palestine”.
Contrary to the goblin’s assumption, the result was rather wonderful. Golan actually came fifth out of 37, one place ahead of Thug. Moreover, voting was conducted not just by juries of national judges but also among the public in participating countries and “the rest of the world”.
In country after country, the public voted for Golan. The British audience — whose national jury awarded her zero points — awarded Golan the full 12, as did 13 other countries. Even Ireland awarded her ten points. From this huge swell of public support, Golan finished with the second highest total number of public votes.
That popular triumph was surely why Thug and the whole satanic team burst into tears. It’s what children do. When thwarted they have a tantrum, stamp their foot and cry.
Other contestants similarly behaved in a childish way. The Greek entrant, 37 year-old Marina Satti, extravagantly mimed being asleep while Golan spoke at a press conference.
Today’s anti-Israel protesters generally behave like children. With the obligatory Arab keffiyeh round their necks as their accessory of choice, they dress up in the costume of the fairy tales they have been told about a looking-glass world of Israel and the Palestinian Arabs in which the roles of monsters and heroes are totally reversed.
On his Substack website, the sociologist Frank Furedi argues that the anti-Israel protesters on campus illustrate a fundamental transformation of the university.
In the 1960s and 1970s, he writes, university students were treated as adults responsible for their own lives. It was assumed that they were mature enough to conduct their own personal affairs, and if things went wrong they were expected to live with the consequences.
Today, “therapy culture” has turned students into children who must be insulated against all adversity, criticism, and pressure. Universities prepare advertising brochures for parents whom they tacitly promise to keep their children safe.
Such a transformation, says Furedi, has turned students into biologically mature children.
This infantilisation of the young surely lies behind today's performative and self-seeking protest culture and “snowflake” meltdowns over campus “micro-aggressions” and “safe spaces”.
This is in obscene contrast to the pro-Gaza mob’s own aggression against the victims of the genocidal agenda that resulted in the murder, rape, torture and kidnap of Israelis, with the threat that these atrocities will be repeated again and again until Israel is destroyed.
What a contrast Eden Golan presents to these infantilised individuals. She’s only 20 years old; yet she behaved with astonishing courage, self-possession and gracious dignity in the face of the baying mobs. The booing, she said, had only made her stronger.
“I represented the country and was our voice for everyone who needs to be brought home now,” she said, referring to the Israeli hostages who are still incarcerated in Gaza.
Earlier this year, Golan said she wanted to “make our voice heard as a country to show everyone that we are here and that we must bring everyone home and no one will break us. This year pierces so deeply into my heart and it is a huge privilege to be at Eurovision in such a year."
The European Broadcasting Union had asked her to change the lyrics to her song “Hurricane”. Originally entitled “October Rain,” it had included specific allusions to the attack but the EBU said all songs had to be non-political.
In a touching and possibly defiant gesture, Golan sang the last verse in Hebrew:
No need for big words, only prayers/Even if it’s hard to see you, always leave me /one small light.
In Israel, she has become a symbol of resistance against baseless hatred, the civilian equivalent of the 20 year-olds and other young Israeli conscripts who are at this moment laying down their lives in their country’s desperate war against evil.
Furedi observes that therapy culture has reframed the life challenges faced by young people as mental disorder. Judging by the satanic goblin’s tearful, profanity-laden rants and the carnival of performative depravity Eurovision has become, many might think a reverse process is under way and that mental disorder has transformed itself into faddish causes.
