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The crisis deepens for Eurovision.
Dutch broadcaster AVROTROS has announced it will boycott next year’s Eurovision Song Contest if Israel is included in the competition, thereby joining Slovenia, Iceland, Spain and Ireland in boycotting the event should the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) keep Israel on the line-up.
In a statement, AVROTROS said: “The Eurovision Song Contest was founded in 1956 to bring people together after a period of deep division and war. Since its inception seventy years ago, music has been at the heart of the Contest as a unifying force, with peace, equality, and respect as its core values.” However, the broadcaster continued to say that it could “no longer justify Israel’s participation in the current situation, given the ongoing and severe human suffering in Gaza”.
Like Ireland’s broadcaster RTÉ, AVROTROS’ statement also cites concerns about press freedom, and alleged there was “proven evidence of interference by the Israeli government” during the 2025 contest, and claimed Israel had used the event “as a political instrument”.
It continued: “Human suffering, the suppression of press freedom and political interference are at odds with the values of public broadcasting.”
The announcement by RTÉ this week also raised concerns about the targeting of journalists and denial of media access to Gaza.
Earlier this week, Spanish Culture Minister Ernest Urtasun spoke out about Spain’s participation in Eurovision next year. Euronews Culture reported that Spain also threatened to withdraw from the contest if Israel is kept on the line-up.
“I don’t think we can normalise Israel’s participation in international events as if nothing is happening,” said Urtasun during an interview on La hora de La 1 on TVE. “It is not an individual artist who participates but someone who participates on behalf of that country’s citizens.”
Urtasun said that if Israel participated in 2026 “and we fail to expel it, measures will have to be taken” – as cited by the Spanish daily newspaper La Vanguardia – and reminded viewers that Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez previously called on EBU to ban Israel from the international competition.
In May, Sánchez called on the EBU to exclude Israel, saying that “no one was shaking their heads” when Russia was banned from international competitions and Eurovision after its invasion of Ukraine. He called for the same ban to be applied to Israel over the Gaza war.
Urtasun specified that it is not antisemitic to denounce the “genocide” taking place in Gaza and described Israel as a “genocidal government.”
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators gather for a protest against the participation of Israeli contestant Eden Golan ahead of the final of Eurovision in Malmo, Sweden – 11 May 2024 – AP Photo
Eurovision has been caught up in political tensions over Israel’s participation for two years now, and the aforementioned countries join more than 70 former Eurovision contestants who signed an open letter demanding Israel and its national broadcaster KAN be banned from the contest.
The winner of last year’s Eurovision, Austrian singer JJ, has said that he too wants Israel to be banned from the Eurovision 2026.
The EBU has extended its penalty-free withdrawal deadline to December, when a final decision on Israel’s participation is expected at the General Assembly.
Since Hamas’ attack on Israeli citizens on October 7, 2023, multiple UN human rights experts have stated that Israel’s military actions in Gaza amount to genocide, with the International Court of Justice finding claims of genocide plausible.
Last month, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification announced that people in the Gaza Strip are officially facing “a man-made” famine in the territory – despite what the Israeli government has said.
The 70th anniversary edition of Eurovision is due to take place in Vienna, Austria.The finale will take place on 16 May after the semi-finals on 12 and 14 May 2026.
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