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MALMO, Sweden (AP) \u2014 Not everyone in Malmo was welcoming the Eurovision Song Contest<\/a> to town.<\/p>\n Thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators protested in the Swedish port city on Thursday against Israel\u2019s participation in the pan-continental pop competition.<\/p>\n Protesters waving green, white and red Palestinian flags packed the historic Stortorget square near Malmo\u2019s 16th-century town hall before a planned march through the city for a rally in a park several miles (kilometers) from the Eurovision venue.<\/p>\n Chanting \u201cfrom the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!\u201d and \u201cIsrael is a terror state,\u201d the demonstrators set off smoke flares in the Palestinian colors during a noisy, peaceful rally to criticize Israel and call for a cease-fire. There was a large police presence<\/a>, with a hovering helicopter, and officers on rooftops with binoculars.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s important to be here,\u201d said Amani Eli-Ali, a Malmo resident of Palestinian heritage. \u201cIt\u2019s not OK for Sweden to arrange this Eurovision and have Israel in the contest.\u201d<\/p>\n The Israel-Hamas war<\/a>, which has killed almost 35,000 Palestinians, has brought a jarring juxtaposition to Eurovision week in Malmo. Music fans in colorful sequined outfits or draped in their national flags mixed in the streets with supporters of the Palestinian cause in keffiyeh scarves.<\/p>\n Palestinian flags fly from windows and balconies along a pedestrianized thoroughfare that has been temporarily renamed \u201cEurovision street.\u201d<\/p>\n Pro-Palestinian groups plan to march again on Saturday, the day of the Eurovision final.<\/p>\n Israel\u2019s government warned its citizens of a \u201ctangible concern\u201d Israelis could be targeted for attack in Malmo during the contest.<\/p>\n Contest organizers, who try to keep Eurovision a non-political event, have rejected calls to bar Israel over the conduct of its war against Hamas<\/a>.<\/p>\n But they told Israel to change the lyrics of its entry, originally titled \u201cOctober Rain\u201d in apparent reference to Hamas\u2019 cross-border Oct. 7 attack that killed some 1,200 Israelis and triggered the war. The song was renamed \u201cHurricane\u201d and Israeli singer Eden Golan was allowed to remain in the contest.<\/p>\n She will compete in Thursday\u2019s semi-final. Some audience members attending a dress rehearsal on Wednesday could be heard to boo during Golan\u2019s performance.<\/p>\n Critics of the decision to let Israel compete point out that Russia was kicked out of Eurovision in 2022 after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine<\/a>, and Belarus was ejected a year earlier over its government\u2019s crackdown on dissent.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re supposed to be united by music but we\u2019re not united, because Israel is participating,\u201d said Malmo resident Anders Trolle-Schultz, who attended the protest.<\/p>\n \u201cI think Malmo should have kept Eurovision, but we should have told Israel either \u2018Stay away,\u2019 or maybe even say, why don\u2019t we invite a Palestinian music group to participate? That would be fair.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n