The European Broadcasting Union cleared Israel to participate in subsequent 12 months’s Eurovision Track Contest, brushing apart calls for for its exclusion and sparking an unprecedented backlash.
“A big majority of Members agreed that there was no want for an additional vote on participation and that the Eurovision Track Contest 2026 ought to proceed as deliberate, with the extra safeguards in place,” the EBU stated in an announcement Thursday.
Following the choice, broadcasters in Spain, Eire, the Netherlands and Slovenia stated they disagreed with the EBU and introduced they might not take part within the Seventieth-anniversary Eurovision in Vienna as a result of Israel was allowed to participate.
The boycotting international locations stated their determination was primarily based on Israel’s battle in Gaza and the ensuing humanitarian disaster, as they launched a historic boycott that plunges Eurovision into its deepest-ever disaster.
“Tradition unites, however not at any worth,” Taco Zimmerman, common director of Dutch broadcaster AVROTROS, stated Thursday. “Common values akin to humanity and press freedom have been severely compromised, and for us, these values are non-negotiable.”
On the opposite facet of the talk, Germany had warned it may pull out of the competition if Israel was not allowed to participate.
Earlier than the voting befell, Golan Yochpaz, a senior Israeli TV government, stated the assembly was “the try and take away KAN [Israeli national broadcasters] from the competition,” which “can solely be understood as a cultural boycott.”
Eire’s public broadcaster RTÉ stated it “feels that Eire’s participation stays unconscionable given the appalling lack of lives in Gaza and the humanitarian disaster there, which continues to place the lives of so many civilians in danger.”
Spanish radio and tv broadcaster RTVE stated it had misplaced belief in Eurovision. RTVE President José Pablo López stated that “what occurred on the EBU Meeting confirms that Eurovision just isn’t a music contest however a competition dominated by geopolitical pursuits and fractured.”
The EBU in Geneva additionally agreed on measures to “curb disproportionate third-party affect, together with government-backed campaigns,” and restricted the variety of public votes to 10 “per fee methodology.” RTVE known as the change “inadequate.”
Controversy earlier this 12 months prompted the adjustments, when a number of European broadcasters alleged that the Israeli authorities had interfered within the voting — after Israel obtained the biggest variety of public votes in the course of the closing.
The EBU has been in talks with its members about Israel’s participation because the subject was raised at a June assembly of nationwide broadcasters in London.
Eurovision is run by the EBU, an alliance of public service media with 113 members in 56 international locations. The competition has lengthy proclaimed that it’s “non-political,” however in 2022, the EBU banned Russia from the competitors following the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Palestinian militant group Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 folks in Israel, a big majority of whom had been civilians, and taking 251 hostages. The assault prompted a significant Israeli navy offensive in Gaza, which has killed tens of 1000’s of Palestinians, lots of them civilians, displaced 90 p.c of Gaza’s inhabitants and destroyed extensive areas.
The ceasefire brokered by U.S. President Donald Trump in October 2025 led to the discharge of the remaining 20 Israeli hostages.