Israel's contestant at the Eurovision Song Contest 2024 has been placed on Ukraine’s notorious Mirotvorets website for participating in a children’s competition in Crimea when she was just 12 years old.
Ukraine’s infamous Mirotvorets (Peacekeeper) database has been dubbed Kiev’s ‘kill list’ and criticized by human rights organizations. The website, reportedly run by the Ukrainian Interior Ministry, lists enemies of the state and marks them as “liquidated” in the event of their death. The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) is widely believed to be behind the deaths of multiple individuals on the database, including Russian journalist Darya Dugina and military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky.
Eden Golan, 20, who holds dual Israeli-Russian citizenship, was added to the database earlier this year, shortly after she won both the jury and public vote to become the Israeli representative at Eurovision. However, it went largely unnoticed until she made it to the finals this week.
According to the Ukrainian website, the singer is accused of “conscious violation of the state border of Ukraine,” conducting “illegal commercial activity in the territories of Ukraine”, attempting to “legalize the occupation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea” as well as participating “in anti-Ukrainian propaganda activities of Russia.”
Golan was born in Israel with both her parents originating from the USSR. Her mother is Ukrainian-Jewish and father is of Latvian-Jewish descent. The singer's family moved back to Russia when she was six, and lived in Moscow for over a decade, before returning to Israel in 2022.
Back in 2016, when Golan was 12 years old, she took part in the Novaya Volna (New Wave) competition in Artek – an international children’s resort in Crimea – where she performed a duet with Russian singer- songwriter Nyusha. That performance was her single “crime” listed on the database.
Golan became the focus of pro-Palestinian protests after she was selected to represent Israel in the song contest, held in Sweden this year.
Thousands of demonstrators descended on the host city of Malmo this week, demanding that Israel be kicked out of Eurovision due to the war in Gaza. Despite her performance being booed by the crowd, Golan reached the finals, with her song Hurricane taking fifth place.