Joost Klein disqualified from the ESC – was it because of a hand gesture?

It was a shock shortly before the grand finale: The Dutch candidate Joost Klein was banned from taking part on Saturday shortly before the European Song Contest (ESC) took place. The organizer said it was about an argument and physical threats. But the accusations from his homeland towards the ESC paint a different picture.

What happened? The European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the organizer of the ESC, surprisingly announced Klein’s disqualification on Saturday. “Swedish police have investigated a complaint made by a female member of the production team following an incident following his performance in the semi-finals on Thursday evening,” it initially said. It is therefore “not appropriate” to allow Klein to appear. They rely on a “zero tolerance policy”. The spectators were horrified. And wondered what exactly was behind the harsh-sounding accusations.

Joost Klein: What’s behind the ESC expulsion?

There are now more details from the Netherlands about the incident being investigated by the police. The situation there is assessed completely differently. According to the Dutch delegation, the incident in question occurred on Thursday. Klein therefore left the stage after a rehearsal. He was filmed by a woman – “contrary to clear agreements,” as the delegation emphasizes. Despite Klein’s repeated requests, she didn’t stop. Then there was “a threatening movement by Joost towards the camera,” which ultimately led to the report, according to a statement from the Dutch TV station “Avrotos.” But he didn’t touch the woman.

The exact movement is not known. A variant would make the different evaluations of the gesture very easy to explain: If you stroke your hand over your neck, it is used as a “head off” gesture and thus as a death threat. However, the gesture is also common in a completely harmless context that would definitely fit the situation: In the TV and film industry, this is how cameramen are signaled to stop filming. As a result, the gesture is used in the industry as a signal to stop doing something. A well-known example is a meme of actor Jonah Hill, who signaled to Emma Stone during an Oscar speech that he did not want to be invited on stage by her. Of course, it is also conceivable that Klein used a different, more explicit threatening gesture.

The Dutch are upset

The Dutch delegation is also so upset because, according to them, the EBU could not be dissuaded from its drastic measures, even after days of negotiations. Even before the incident became known, Klein had offered to meet with the camerawoman and apologize publicly, Avrotos boss Taco Zimmerman told the in-house news program “Eenvandaag”.

“He really wanted to perform. He’s in sackcloth.” Zimmermann is convinced that the fact that the EBU was still not persuaded to participate was “an unreasonably high punishment.” Klein himself has not yet commented on the decision. On Saturday evening he posted only once – and shared a clip of dancing dogs.

Klein and the Israel conflict

Klein had already made headlines before the incident. He had criticized Israel’s participation in the ESC several times, and during a press appearance by the candidates he ostentatiously hid behind the Dutch flag when Israeli participant Eden Golan was asked whether she felt safe.

On the other hand, the Israeli delegation also provoked the Dutch. Journalist Dov Gil-Har from the Israeli broadcaster “KAN” filmed himself asking a Dutch delegation member questions about where they had been during rehearsals after Klein had already been banned from rehearsals on Friday.

Keren Peles, the songwriter of the Israeli entry, posted a video of herself making fun of Klein backstage. “The Dutch participant didn’t want to be filmed, so I’m filming our dancer here,” she wrote about the video on her Instagram story. And keeps zooming in on Klein standing in the background. She had previously described him as an anti-Semite.

Dutch fans are now speculating on social media that the clip posted on Thursday could have been the reason for Klein’s threat. But this has not been confirmed. Peles has now made her Instagram channel, in which other ESC participants were secretly filmed and mocked, private.

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