Palestinian Eurovision
Palestinian Eurovision is a corporation between: The Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation (PBC), Sabreen Association for Artistic Development, and SUPERFLEX. In 2007, the Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation applied to the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) for active membership and was thereby seeking participation in the 2008 Eurovision song contest. The motivation behind the application is a wish to contribute to the Eurovision tradition of creating positive cultural experience and to build a media infrastructure in Palestine. Already, the EBU area includes 56 nations, among those the western part of the USSR, the northern part of Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Jordan and Israel. SUPERFLEX has worked as consultant to Palestinian Eurovision since 2008. After a large quantity of legal work, numerous meetings and high level negotiations, the Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation still has not achieved active membership of the European Broadcasting Union.

Eurovision
Eurovision is the story of a continent that overcame its history by uniting across nations. Now Palestine wishes to contribute to this idea, to present the world with a message of culture, openness and the desire to be part of a global cultural heritage, by applying to join the Eurovision in 2008.
The idea of the Eurovision is to create unity through the celebration of cultural diversity. Palestinian contribution embraces this basic idea and can re-vitalize the true spirit of Eurovision and provide it with a chance to show new ways towards world unity. Civil institutions, public service and media broadcasting have a key role to play in rebuilding society. This project aims at building capacity and infrastructure of such institutions. That is why “Palestinian Eurovision” will be a valuable step for Palestinian society as a whole.

Facts:
• PBC is an approved participant of EBU.
• PBC has applied to EBU for active membership.
• Preparation for local contest starts late summer 2007.
• Local contest will be open to all Palestinians in the world.
• First phase of the project is supported by the Danish Representative Office in Ramallah.

PBC:
Is the national public service station of the Palestinian people. It has a Radio station know as the “Voice of Palestine” and a satellite channel. It has studios in Ramallah and Gaza. PBC will provide technical and human resources for the Eurovision project and will be responsible for broadcasting the events. About Sabreen: Started as a musical group in 1980 in Jerusalem and developed into Sabreen Association for Artistic development in 1987 as a non-profit community based organization that specializes primarily in music and combining it with different artistic expressions and forms.

Sabreen functions in the following main streams:
• Production
• Competence building
• Technical support Sabreen is the administrative and artistic coordinator and supervisor of the Palestinian Eurovision project.

Palestinian Eurovision is a logo representing a collaborative effort between SUPERFLEX,The Palestinian Broadcast Corporation (PBC) and Sabreen Association for Artistic Development. The ambition is for Palestine to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest and become a active member of the European Broadcast Union (EBU). The motivation behind the project is a wish to build a media infrastructure in Palestine and to contribute to the Eurovision Song Contest tradition of creating positive cultural experience in participating on equal terms as Israel within this context. The Logo represents a desire for Palestine to be recognized and located in the heart of Europeans.

The Logo has been designed in collaboration with Graphic designer Rasmus Koch
Palestinian Eurovision
An Appeal for Active Membership in the EBU

The Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation PBC in cooperation with Sabreen Association for Arti- stic Development, and many other eminent civil society organizations have announced their ambi- tion to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest.
Aware that our participation in the Eurovision Song Contest is subject to PBC becoming an active member in the EBU, we see this event as a perfect occasion to begin cooperation between our insti- tutions and the EBU. Today, in this important meeting of the EBU, we would like to take the opportunity to seek your support and express our great interest in becoming an active member of the EBU. In this context it is worth mentioning that we are not a member country of the ITU, but we have an advanced observer status.
We, the Palestinian Eurovision Partners, wish to express our gratitude to you for taking the time and paying attention to this appeal as we strongly believe that the Eurovision Song Contest is an important platform for promoting cultural exchange, and for enhancing understanding and tolerance among people.
We genuinely believe that having an active membership in the EBU will highly benefit our TV institution through enhancing its capacities to carry out its main mission of promoting and strengt- hening a culture of democracy, a civil society that is respectful of freedom of opinion and expres- sion, human rights, and the values of transparency, accountability, and tolerance.
PBC fully respects the fact that this new membership status entails reciprocity in exchanging news coverage of current affairs and of important cultural and sports events that are of interest for the respective countries. In fact, PBC has a proven history in this kind of exchange namely in the cove- rage of the Christmas High Mass directly from the Nativity Church in Bethlehem that is provided to all interested TV stations around the world for free. PBC will benefit from a closer cooperation with European TV stations and will be committed to the statutes and regulations of membership.
Finally, we recognize that Palestine does not have the status of an independent country. However, we believe that the people of Palestine, its institutions, and mainly the Partners of the Palestinian Eurovision, are striving to lay the foundations for a democratic state that observes and respects human rights, international conventions and treaties. As FIFA has shown understanding and accepted Palestine in the World Cup, we hope that EBU will do the same.
To this end, we are hopeful that our request will be taken seriously and members of the EBU vote in favor of Palestine’s active membership in the EBU, thus bringing us a step closer in our efforts towards achieving democracy.
Vote for Palestine becomes an active member in EBU