- Dr. Shay Attias
- Paper No. 1172
The โฌ28.5 million Eurovision song contest, which draws 200 million viewers from 42 countries, might seem to be just a huge pop spectacle, but it is a good deal more. In addition to serving as an entertainment vehicle, it is a powerful mechanism of soft power โ a tool that is critically important to the modern State of Israel and particularly to the city of Jerusalem. Europeโs refusal to allow the contest to be held in Jerusalem, in contravention of Eurovisionโs own rules, constitutes a victory for the BDS movement.