So what we've found out folks, is that he was in fact disqualified for no reason. And the EBU has a bigger problem with somebody non-violently retaliating when being harassed than allowing an apartheid state to be representing themselves and breaking the rules of no political statements... Bambie, iolanda, and Erik Saade all got censored for discrete advocacy for freedom for Palestine, but not the Israeli delegate for holding up his yellow ribbon badge?? (reference to victims of October 7th) Most of us can agree that the alternative should have always been 25 countries in the Final, just the wrong country was taken out.
Back to the case of Joost, he had every right to do what he did in the light of constantly having a camera in his face, but is it just me who thinks that if the camera woman was recording that the "threatening movement" would have been shown as evidence? (maybe it did in court but not on the Internet, just a thought). His rights as a qualifying contestant were taken from him and the least that the EBU can do is a public apology; it has been confirmed he's done nothing wrong. With all of this however, I find that there are some things that Joost has done that I do condemn (such as performing concerts in Russ1a after the war on Ukraine was declared), however these actions are not in any way related to his disqualification, which was taken completely out of proportion.
As for now, September 1st is Europapa Day so we all mass stream Europapa to bring it back onto global charts to send a message to the EBU.
