Joost's disqualification is outrageous enough just on its own, but another key detail as to why people are extra upset about it is that 'Europapa' is a song he wrote to honor his parents. they both passed away when he was very young, which has been a driving force behind a lot of his works (which i haven't heard, to be very honest, but i've read about it many times in the media). while the song is absolutely Euro-propaganda (as much as the whole ESC is) — referencing many countries by name and the Schengen agreement which allows unrestricted travel between them — it also manages to connect those topics to his own mission to honor his parents on the Eurovision stage.

the whole experience at the ESC for him has therefore been a very emotional and overwhelming one, and him and the Dutch delegation have requested the EBU several times to make sure he doesn't get filmed all the time as he has a lot on his mind and it makes him uncomfortable. this also ties in with the Israeli delegation, who have been relentlessly attacking other artists both through reporters harassing and filming them at the ESC and social media posts/broadcasts putting the other artists and their songs in a negative light. the whole situation revealed to a lot of people that the EBU seems to give Israel preferential treatment, as a result of the victim role they've placed themselves in with the Palestinian genocide.

the ESC is a very political contest. and sure, a contest for countries will always be inherently political, but it goes further than that. the EBU also has members outside the European Union such as Australia, Azerbaijan, or Israel, who get to participate too. and country delegations will usually vote for countries that they have good relations with; if a country ever voted against that, it would make the news. it's essentially a form of soft power, a big politicized event that allows all these countries in and outside the EU to maintain relations with eachother in a more informal way. taking action against Israel therefore is a hot potato that the EBU doesn't want to touch, so they have been been allowed to act this way towards the other participants very uncritically.

the EBU's mismanagement continued, as they put the Dutch delegation right next to the Israeli one during a press conference, after the Israeli delegation had already repeatedly filmed Joost without permission and posted it to their socials. that's where you get the moment with Joost covering himself with the Dutch flag — presumably because he is overwhelmed by both the press conference and by being sat right next to the delegation that has been harassing him and everyone else the whole time.

this eventually lead up to the incident in which he lashed out at a Swedish camera operator. this happened right after he was finished performing his song. as previously mentioned, performing it is a really personal and emotional thing for him; he's visibly crying in the outro of the song during the semi-final performance. his requests to not be filmed have to do with this moment specifically, as he is very emotional when walking off stage after performing it. the EBU hasn't done anything with his requests, so now he is being filmed against his consent, and so he verbally tells the camera operator off, i believe with a gesture that may have been interpreted as being threatening. this was reported to the police, and the EBU disqualified him as the investigation was still ongoing.

while "artist threatens camera operator" sounds bad, in reality it was just him revoking consent to be filmed. there are several different stories of the event going around; AVRO-TROS states that nobody was hurt, nothing was damaged, it was a verbal threat at most. but the EBU kept silent on the whole situation, which lead to thousands of journalists and fans speculating what happened; i've also heard a version of the story in which he allegedly broke the reporter's camera, or where he actually tried to reach the reporter directly, or that it was an Israeli reporter harassing him over his dead parents. none of those stories have been confirmed. regardless of how bad it was, i can't be mad. it's ultimately the result of the EBU's gross mismanagement of their candidates. Israel is getting off scot-free because everyone is too scared to tell them to quit being a bully, leading to the harassment of many of the ESC artists and their delegations. if the EBU took all the reports about the Israeli delegation seriously, and if they respected Joost's requests not to be filmed during this personal moment for him, it wouldn't have come this far and he wouldn't have been so overwhelmed or have felt the need to lash out at anyone.

all around it's a whole host of unprofessional behavior from the EBU. i can definitely foresee artists and countries not wanting to work with them again in the future over this gross mistreatment of all the candidates.

as an aside, this situation really started months ago when Israel's entry got announced and it turned out to be overtly about the October 7 attacks. the EBU never flat out disqualified them from participating like they did with Russia for being an aggressor in a literal war. they merely just requested the Israeli candidate to change her song's lyrics. from what i've read, the song was still very much about the same topic, but slightly different to comply with the EBU. Israel has absolutely been using their participation in the ESC as propaganda to normalize what they're doing. many people have called for a boycott of the ESC as a result. this resulted in several artists being asked by the public to withdraw from the contest, and has also resulted in protests at the ESC's venue in Malmo.

i personally didn't watch because of the boycott (though i have absolutely followed the shitstorm that happened. fuck the EBU; it's not like they get revenue from me watching our country's news about it), but i have ofcourse heard 'Europapa' and i personally think it's a banger! despite not watching i would've loved if it won this year; it's a shame that it didn't get the chance. it's our most successful Eurovision entry to date, after our ESC committee decided to drastically turn things around and send a new, more refreshing artist as our entry this year. i really hope Joost can cope with everything that has happened to him here.