This week, the Broadcasting Authority (who controls “Channal 1”) has chosen Achinoam Nini — known internationally as Noa — and Mira Awad to represent Israel in the upcoming 2009 Eurovision Song Contest in Moscow, Russia.

Choosing an Arab / Jewish pair to represent Israel in these days of bitter conflict seems like pure escapism. Indeed, several Arab-Israeli artists have made a public appeal to Mira Awad, asking her not to take on the role of Israel’s “fig leaf” while atrocities are being committed in Gaza.

Personally, I think sending this pair can only do good to Jewish – Arab relations inside Israel. We need any glimpse of hope that could help us believe, still, that this land has a future — a viable future, for all its human inhabitants.

Noa & The palestinian singer Nabil Salameh performing together “Centro del Mundo” at Rome in 2002