Eurovision: Reaktionen aus der arabischen Welt

Die Haaretz berichtet von erstaunlichen Reaktionen in der arabischen Welt auf den israelischen Sieg im Eurovisions Contest:

Olaya, a woman from Morocco, wrote, “I’m in love with this song!” Another Moroccan even invited Barzilai to make a joint video with two Moroccan singers.

Abu Majd from Saudi Arabia was also encouraging. “This isn’t the type of music I like, but this song has everything it takes to become an international hit,” he wrote.

Ahmed, an employee of Iraq’s Interior Ministry, wished Barzilai luck. That prompted an Egyptian, also named Ahmed, to attack him.

“You’re a Muslim, but your feelings are Jewish,” he wrote. “You don’t deserve the name Ahmed.”

The Iraqi retorted, “What does religion have to do with music and competitions?”

Another user called the song "wonderful", saying it mixes Arabic, Western and European music. A resident of Yemen said Barzilai had a beautiful voice and also wished her luck.

Yonatan Gonen, who heads the Arabic desk in the Foreign Ministry’s digital diplomacy department, said the post also garnered many comments from women, even though the page has few female followers.

“Many women from Morocco commented on the song,” he said, adding that Morocco “is a relatively open and liberal country, so many women apparently found something empowering in this song and wrote about it. The fact that it was posted around International Women’s Day was significant in this regard.”

Gonen said that certain elements of the clip particularly appealed to Arab women. “The singer is made up with very heavy makeup,” he noted. “The fact that she’s wearing large pieces of jewelry and sings part of the song with middle eastern musical arrangements created a feeling of identification among both male and female viewers.”