Never a news item was changed so many times in the history of ESCTODAY ! Late this afternoon, the European Broadcasting Union confirmed that there is a slight chance that Israel and Portugal will participate in Tallinn next year. After an Israelian newspaper wrote about this, there were many rumors on the internet.
12.00: ESCTODAY read that the Israelian newspaper “Yedioth ahronot” wrote that Israel and Portugal might participate in Tallinn next year.
14.00: Nathaly Schwarm-Bronson of the EBU told ESCOL today, “The rumour is false. The number of participants in next year”s EuroSong is twenty two, it will not be increased”.
16:00: Nathaly Schwarm-Bronson, who assists Eurovision coordinator Christine Marchal Ortiz, told: “The Reference Group of EuroSong 2002 will suggest that two more countries take part in next year”s contest during the meeting of the TV committee on 19 July and they are the ones who will either approve or reject the proposal. We will know then whether Israel and Portugal will be able to participate in the 2002 contest”.
The fans in Israel are very happy. But the regular audience, who mostly was very happy to see Israel out of the contest, wrote things like “Oh No Here we go again” and “It”s time to get humiliated again” .These quotes are taken from the Israeli message board of the newspaper “Yediot Achronot”, where the news about Israel participating was published and re-written by Ilan from London, maintainer of the EuroFriends Yahoo! Group. Ilan said: “The mood in Israel in the last few month is very down due to the political situation that seems un-resolvable. That influence the mood of people and I can tell you most people were disappointed from Israel”s 16th position in ESC 2001 – although none was really surprised! There is a feeling of “The whole world is against us” and that is why most of the reaction to this news were negative”.
After Ilan”s statement, a discussion came up about the political situation in Israel.
