Belgium competed in semi-final 2 of Eurovision 2024 on Thursday night. As those in the Flemish community of the country sat down to watch the contest on VRT, their broadcast was briefly paused just before the show commenced to display a trade union message condemning “violations of human rights by the State of Israel,” who were also competing in Thursday’s semi-final.
The message shown on VRT before semi-final 2 stated the following:
“This is industrial action
We condemn the violations of human rights by the State of Israel. Furthermore, the State of Israel is destroying freedom of the press.
#CeasefireNow
#StopGenocide”
?? Before the start of tonight's second semi-final, Belgian broadcaster VRT displayed a message by their trade union condemning the human rights violations by Israel.
— ESC Discord (@ESCdiscord) May 9, 2024
It furthermore accused Israel of destroying freedom of press.
[? VRT] pic.twitter.com/XkC6ioXjUW
“Industrial action” is used by employees of an organisation to indicate their dissatisfaction with certain conditions or events.
The message shared on VRT before semi-final 2 was done at the demand of the trade union that represents the workers at the broadcaster. The union would have notified the organisation’s managers of their intent before it was then shown on screen.
Belgium has two participating broadcasters at Eurovision, who each take turns selecting the country’s entry. This year, French-speaking broadcaster RTBF is in charge. Flemish broadcaster VRT chose the entry in 2023 and will return as the representative broadcaster in 2025.
Mustii displays “Peace” message during Eurovision performance
There was further messaging from Belgium during semi-final 2. The country’s representative, Mustii, chose to write one clear word at the top of his arm whilst appearing on stage.
“PEACE”
The Belgian singer revealed the simple but clear memo during the final moments of his song “Before the Party’s Over.”
Mustii's arm: PEACE #Eurovision2024 pic.twitter.com/F1AUCqafpc
— Songfestival.be (@Songfestival_be) May 9, 2024
I will laugh so hard when 12 points from Belgium will go to Israel. One thing is what broadcasters show us and another thing is what poeple actually think. Despite the minority being very loud most people actually support Israel in this case. Just look at “alleged” voting results in Italy.
So rich to hear Israel being criticized about “destroying freedom of the press,” when we have Mexico’s president viciously attacking independent journalists and foreign media daily, up to the point where he has doxxed several people
WTF has Mexico to do with this?
Almost nothing at all, it’s just that no one cares about it bc Mexico is politically irrelevant and talking about it ain’t trendy like Filastin
At least they have the guts …
This guy gave me NQ cubes 5 since the first rehearsal but you like to blame Israel.
Bravo Belgium, finally a country is speaking up!
Speaking up what ? That in the actual ranking of worldwide press freedom Serbia is no. 79, Israel is at no.86, Georgia 89, Azerbaijan 156 and Palestina 170 ? Yes, good to speak it up, but what do they wanna tell us ?
Belgium should be banned for at least 2 years. It’s clearly a violation of EBU rules.
And commiting a Gen•cide isnt a violation of the rules?
Brainwashing and didn’t even knowing what signification of words are. Go bye a dictionary
Stop k!lling children
When the c0ward H@m4s will STOP hiding behind their children…!! Bark at the right tree… (not the wrong one)
Youre clearly the victim of a failed Israeli education system. It’s buy, not bye. Learn to spell.
YOU MUST BE KIDDING ME!!!
The broadcaster can run whatever they want before the show, can’t they. It’s not like they interrupted the show, so no
freedom of speech for everyone though, everyone is entitled of their own opinions?
Why is writing peace a violation? Should Ein Bisschen Frieden be excluded from Eurovision Winners as well now then maybe ?!??!!?
There is no breaking of any rules. The show was not interrupted, Eden’s performance was shown and I’m sure it got votes. Shame on you for condemning people for expressing their opinion. Freedom of the press and of speech for everyone!
Like everyone said, no rules were broken. The message was shown before the show started so no interruption. Plus you can say whatever you want, EBU can ban a broadcast member but not a country. As we have 2 broadcast members in Belgium, you can’t ban both of them if only one of them broke the rule 😉
u should start reading good sources of information, don’t believe everything you hear in your local information
And why is that??? Never heard of FREEDOM OF SPEECH,????
you’ve apparentley never heard of free speech
So proud of my country… we rarely have amazing singers (proof last night again) but we are a true democracy…
an arab country…. soon you will not be a demobracy
Don’t worry for us, we live pretty well in Belgium and we know ethic
Well said!!!!!
SELL YOUR NONSENS SOMEWHERE ELSE!!!
EBU are cowards, the artwashing scum should not have been allowed to compete, it has brought the competition into disrepute.
FACTS!
So that is why he was eliminated
Respect
So we need to wait until Sunday to see if Belgium was disqualified and as a result Latvia (11th) qualified?
Destroying freedom of the press……what about Georgia and Azerbaijan? Israel is still a democracy. It gets more and more silly.
Israel is on position 101 in the World Press Index 2024, lol
That is a lie. It’s no.86, Palestina 170. wake up !!!
Israel is not a democracy. Netanyahu is a dictator a corrupted criminal and even Israelis are protesting against him way before the terrorist attack (he knew about it)
Idc who wins now. Give the win to Latvia for all i care, just plss not that terr0rist organisation that claims to be the victims
Don’t be too surprised if they win (or rather are given the trophy) the whole competition.
The EBU‘s long standing claims that the contest is apolitical have never looked more ridiculous than they do right now.
When your vocal abilities are not gonna get you into the final, you try activism. It was enough for the top 16. Kudos indeed. Now he can watch Eden‘s performance in peace on tv.
Wow… I forgot that VRT was airing in other countries and that they tried to get vote this way.
I was obviously referring to Mustii who was airing everywhere.
And? Mustii didn’t try any “activism”. VRT did and rightfully.
Mustii just had one word on his arm that you could barely see. And from what I know wishing for peace is something I would call basic humanism.
Or try witchcraft!! 😀
Also good. Worked three times this year.
: )
Lol Eden Goland vocals were very off too but she advanced because of pity and political votes alone
Shame on everyone that supports the gen‘0‘side
She has the chance to shine even brighter on Saturday when you’ll witness her 400 televote points. I know you’ll be happy for her.
At the start she sounded a bit nervous, but already soon after and until the end she shined. Strong young women.
Eden and the dancers were very authentic.
I love the simple clothes, basic shorts and loose shirts of the dancers.
And their facial expressions are everything.
Everyone knows it will be bot votes, no one will take the result serious if Israel wins, only thing it will do is destroy the contest but that‘s completely EBU‘s own fault
You can buy votes but you will never make people forget what Israel is doing right now
Protests also push right leaning people to vote Israel.
I hope juries sink Israel now. Unless Moroccan oil spends more dirty money that is
Money talks and playing the victim also helps.
I understand they had to show this in regards to the recent Rafah offensive and Al-Jazeera services in Israel being closed down, but this statement comes rather too late for EBU to do anything now.
They got what they deserved. Goodbye!
Funny how people think that barring Israel from fighting a terrorist organization that threatens the west as a whole will bring “peace”.
People don’t think that, both the televote and the reaction in the arena show that public overwhelmingly understands the situation and supports Israel.
It’s the same minority that’s been going on about peace in Ukraine but letting Russia kill them, that spreads this message about Israel.
Those cheers for Israel were fake. They used the anti-booing system for TV. My friends who were at the arena took videos of how loudly people were booing for Israel.
The EBU is shameless.
Go ahead and sl@ughter 600 000 children living in Rafah if reluctancy is the best solution on your mind.
There were 171 899 residents in Rafah in year 2017. So how could it be 600 000 children there? You’re making numbers and we’re not buying your bullcrap.
Hats off to VRT! This really warmed my heart!
Kudos Belgium.
It amazes me that much like the UK last year that a country internally selects an artist that is simply not up to the job. Do the selectors have no clue.
Well he is able to sing, he just picked a song that he is not able to perform well enough for a singing competition.
Karma is a bit@ch 🙂
So true haha – all haters have collacsed in the oddes – Nemo, Juust, Marina ….
Trying to blame politics for having a poor quality song and performance. Simply pathetic. Try harder Belgium next time.
They’re not trying anything here except saying the truth 🙂 We understood here in Belgium that we weren’t getting through.
Bravo Belgium! Proud of my winner Mustii!
amm he lost…
He said “my winner” read again
Isn’t it strange how Belgium was disqualified and Israel moved to the finals shortly after this happened?
Because? Because Jews control the world? Lol
They weren’t disqualified. They didn’t qualify. There’s a big difference.
Very strange. Countries qualifying and not qualifying during a vote? Highly suspicious, that has never happened before!
While I do question actions of the country often rightly criticized for what they’re doing at the moment, I also believe there is a time and place for such conversations, critique and actions. Eurovision Song Contest is not one of those moments and places. The desire to politicize every segment of our lives is something I do not support either and this includes our song contest.
Children being starved to death by a gen0cidal regime beg to differ.
Don’t worry, Israel is working hard on liberating them from you-know-who and soon they’ll enjoy the same protections as many Arabs who have been living peacefully in Israel for decades.
And saying this in Eurovision is going to change… what?
Supportin a country going through a gen•cide is not politicizing every part of our lives
Italy’s televote went 39% for Israel. And in Austria it was 43% for Israel.
Something’s up.
Where did you get the info about Austria?
Yes, something’s up – people are pushing against the bullying and antisemitism. Ironically, the anti-Israel trolls may have just made Israel win Eurovision this year.
Have these figures been released or where are these percentages from?
Not true about Austria, you are making things up
I voted for Hurricane because i love the song and Art, style and class.
And Eden and the dancers were everything i love to see in a performance.
Plss if that country wins this year i pray eurovision will never happen again. Giving the win to a country that is currently commiting a gen•cide is against all the values this contest claims to hold
Palestine isn’t participating, so don’t worry, a country that is currently committing gcd will not get the win.
Yeah your delusional self propably has a hard time acknowledging the 12.000 children Isntreal has kill3d, not to mention all the adults and elders
Sour loser
It was before semi final you møron. You just have to read the title.
You have to use more brain cells to understand my comment. It is not as straightforward as you think
EBU failed and this will sink the contest. It has for me if Israel win. It’s a song contest and yet again the main talking point is war
The contest I loved is no longer
About the time to adjust yourself to new reality. We will have more conflicts in the future. Europe is a unicorns and rainbows no more.
Couldn’t agree more!
This wouldn’t have happened if antisemites haven’t tried to bully Eden and bring drama into the contest. Israel would be somewhere in the second half of top 10 if some people didn’t feel the need to politicise the whole think and keep mumbling about a nonexistent gen°cide.
I don’t think that was the reason yesterday.
Yesterday’s live performance was pure class and art.
It was even more beautiful than I expected. It stood out.
And I think many others felt the same.
Agree with your last part about ridiculous politicising by the people who don’t want a political contest.