Israel in the Eurovision Song Contest 2013

Israel joined the European Broadcasting Union in 1957 and first entered the Eurovision Song Contest in 1973. Membership in the broadcasting union provided the formal basis for Israel's participation.[5][6] Its most recent victory before the 2013 contest had been Dana International's "Diva" in 1998.[5]

Kdam Eurovision was a national competition created by Israel's Channel One to select the country's representative. The first separately held selection event took place in 1981, and the name "Kdam Eurovision" was formally established in 1982.[7][8] Through 2013, the competition had been held intermittently 25 times in two formats: an open contest featuring different artists and a format in which an artist selected by a committee presented several songs for public choice.[7] The local-selection model dates to 1978, when new songs competed and regional juries awarded points.[7]

The 2013 contest took place barely half a year after Operation Pillar of Defense, contributing to an unusually tense security atmosphere surrounding the Israeli delegation in Malmö.[4]

Israel's 2013 national selection involved 30 songs across five live broadcasts. The process comprised three semifinals, a supplementary "lifebuoy" round and the final.[8][1]

Moran Mazor, who had previously won the first season of the Israeli television competition "Eyal Golan Is Calling You," competed in the final with "Rak Bishvilo."[8] A mako review noted that her final performance featured more vocal ornamentation than her semifinal appearance and praised its emotional delivery. Mazor burst into tears onstage after her victory was announced.[1]

Mazor won the final with 104 points, nine ahead of runner-up Ron Weinreich. The result combined judges' scores and audience voting, each weighted at 50 percent. After the judges' vote, Mazor and Weinreich were tied at 64 points each. Although Shani Zamir received the most audience points, Mazor ranked second with the audience and won on the combined tally.[1]

"Rak Bishvilo" had lyrics by Gal Sarig, music by Chen Harari and an arrangement by Chen Metzger-Eder.[1] Before departing for Sweden, Mazor said she intended to learn some Swedish and that her team would work to prepare the entry as well as possible.[1]

The Eurovision Song Contest 2013 was held in Malmö with delegations from 39 countries.[3] Mazor performed tenth in the second semifinal on May 16, accompanied by backing singers Daniel Skat and Avia Shoshani. Chen Metzger-Eder performed on piano, and Doron Medalie directed the staging.[9]

The semifinal took place on Mazor's 22nd birthday. During the voting interval, she was interviewed from the green room and members of the Israeli delegation sang to mark the occasion.[9]

The second semifinal featured 17 competing countries, with ten qualifying places available for the grand final. Israel did not qualify.[9] Denmark ultimately won the final with Emmelie de Forest's "Only Teardrops," which received 281 points.[2]

The Israeli delegation in Malmö operated under extraordinary security conditions. Delegation spokesman Alon Amir later recalled: "We went to Malmö with six Shin Bet [Israel Security Agency] agents and another 30 local police were with us at all times. We couldn't leave the hotel alone."[4]

While walking in Malmö during the contest week, Amir and two other Israelis were accosted by a group of young men. Amir told Swedish Radio that he identified himself as being from Cyprus because he anticipated where the encounter was heading. He reported that the men said: "Where are the Israelis staying, we want to bomb the place," and stated: "It wasn't a joke."[3]

On the Wednesday before the grand final, Malmö municipal Culture Committee chairman Daniel Sestrajcic called for Israel to be excluded from the contest at a public demonstration commemorating the Nakba, declaring: "Israel can return when Palestine is free."[3] Amid concerns about antisemitism in the city, hundreds of Jews and non-Jews planned to walk together through Malmö wearing kippot as a public act of opposition to antisemitism.[3]

A separate dispute arose over Mazor's stage costume. She had reportedly commissioned fashion designer John Galliano to design her performance dress, but the Israel Broadcasting Authority prohibited the arrangement, citing Galliano's videotaped racist and antisemitic outburst at a Paris café two years earlier. Galliano's publicist denied that he had agreed to take on the commission.[10]

After her elimination, Mazor said: "I'm sad that I didn't qualify for the final. I did my best. I thank everyone who supported me. This is only one stage in my career."[2] Her agent, singer Eyal Golan, responded on Facebook by calling the competition unfair, contrasting several qualifying songs with Mazor's performance and urging her to be proud of herself. His comments represented his reaction to the result rather than an independently established assessment of the contest.[2]

Israel's failure to advance marked the third consecutive year in which the country had been eliminated in the semifinals, following Dana International in 2011 and Izabo in 2012.[2] Israel still participated in the final's voting: broadcaster Ofer Nachshon announced the Israeli points, with Azerbaijan receiving 12 and eventual winner Denmark receiving eight.[2]

A 2024 retrospective revisited the 2013 contest as a precedent for the security concerns surrounding Eurovision's return to Malmö. It connected the tense atmosphere in 2013 to the recent conclusion of Operation Pillar of Defense and preserved Amir's account of the extensive Israeli and local security presence around the delegation.[4]