Eurovision boss says there won’t be another vote on Israel: ‘The membership spoke conclusively’
Eurovision boss Martin Green rules out holding any future vote on Israel’s participation in the annual song contest and denies that the competition is facing financial difficulties due to an Israel-related boycott.
“That’s done. The membership spoke conclusively,” Green tells the Variety entertainment news site in an interview. “Almost 70 percent made their decision that they believe that public service broadcasters are not responsible for the actions of their government, and that [Israeli broadcaster] Kan should be allowed to participate.”
A number of anti-Israel public broadcasters forced a vote last year on Israel’s participation, and after a majority of members chose to keep Kan in the contest, five countries backed out in protest: Ireland, Iceland, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Spain — which had been a member of the “Big Five” countries that contribute more financially.
The Eurovision director declined to comment on whether he expected any of the boycotters to return next year, and says he is unaware of any countries planning to join them.
Green also denies that Spain’s exit has strained the competition’s finances.
“It’s bollocks,” he says, using vulgar British slang. “Eurovision has a really robust model and it has over the 70 years weathered what the world tried to throw at it. So we’ll be around for many, many, many, many, many years to come.”
He also dismisses a New York Times report earlier this year asserting that Israel was manipulating the competition and its voting.
“I thought it was just a sort of rehash of lots of bits and pieces,” he says of the article. “We had a fully validated vote again this year. We saw no evidence of undue large-scale paid promotion, we saw no evidence of anything untoward in our voting at all. ”
After being cleared to compete, Israel sent Noam Bettan to this year’s competition in Vienna, where he finished in second place.