{"id":185156,"date":"2025-12-10T17:08:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-10T17:08:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/185156\/"},"modified":"2025-12-10T17:08:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T17:08:07","slug":"eurovision-allows-israel-to-compete-spain-holland-are-boycotting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/185156\/","title":{"rendered":"Eurovision Allows Israel To Compete & Spain & Holland Are Boycotting"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tUPDATE, 08.36 a.m. PT, December 10: Iceland has joined Spain<\/a>, Ireland, Slovenia and the Netherlands<\/a> in boycotting next year\u2019s Eurovision<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe nation took a few days to make its decision but has joined with the other four, all of whom had threatened boycotts in the run up to last week\u2019s decision by Eurovision to allow Israel<\/a> to compete.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cParticipation of Israeli national broadcaster, KAN, in the contest has created disunity among both members of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and the general public,\u201d Icelandic broadcaster R\u00daV said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\n\tBBC News reported that R\u00daV had previously indicated it intended to boycott 2026 but wanted to wait until the issue could be discussed by its board of directors on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\n\tUPDATE, 01.11 a.m. PT, December 5: The BBC is among those to have thrown weight behind the decision to allow Israel to compete in the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest<\/a>, but Europe\u2019s pubcasters remain deeply divided over the issue.<\/p>\n

\n\tA \u201clarge majority\u201d of European Broadcasting Union (EBU) members yesterday effectively approved Israel\u2019s participation in a secret ballot, according to the organization, which oversees the competition. They voted to accept new measures and safeguards set out last month, and to reject a further vote on participation.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe support the collective decision made by members of the EBU,\u201d said a BBC spokesperson. \u201cThis is about enforcing the rules of the EBU and being inclusive.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tGermany is also among the major European nations in favor of inclusion, and had actually warned it would boycott if Israel was not allowed to compete.<\/p>\n

\n\tHowever, four countries \u2013 the Netherlands, Spain, Ireland and Slovenia \u2013 have said they will boycott, citing concerns over Israel\u2019s actions in Gaza during its war with Hamas. They had also accused the Israeli government of ignoring rules around neutrality and helping to inflate Israel\u2019s vote last year.<\/p>\n

\n\tJose Pablo Lopez, the boss of Spanish state broadcaster RTVE wrote on X: \u201cWhat happened in the EBU Assembly confirms that Eurovision is not a song contest but a festival dominated by geopolitical interests.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIcelandic public broadcaster RUV is still to make a decision whether to participate. Eurovision will be held in Vienna next May, with the winner, JJ, having come from Austria this year.<\/p>\n

\n\tPREVIOUSLY, 9.50am P.T., December 4: The row over Israel\u2019s participation in the Eurovision Song Contest has deepened with Israel now officially allowed to compete, and some nations already boycotting.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Netherlands, Spain, Ireland and Slovenia have swiftly said they will not take part next year after a meeting of participating broadcasters said Israel would be let in.<\/p>\n

\n\tDutch broadcaster Avrotros said that \u201cparticipation under the current circumstances is incompatible with the public values \u200b\u200bthat are essential to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSpanish broadcaster RTVE added: \u201cThe board of directors of RTVE agreed last September that Spain would withdraw from Eurovision if Israel was part of it. This withdrawal also means that RTVE will not broadcast the Eurovision 2026 final\u2026 nor the preliminary semi-finals.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tIreland and Slovenia was also reported to be boycotting by BBC News, with Irish broadcaster RT\u00c9 calling participation \u201cunconscionable.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tRTVE had led calls for Israel\u2019s dismissal and BBC News reported that the Spanish broadcaster requested a secret ballot on Israel\u2019s participation.<\/p>\n

\n\tDue to the Israel-Hamas War, Spain, the Netherlands and Ireland, along with Slovenia and Iceland, had threatened boycotts. Slovenia and Iceland are now expected to withdraw from the competition.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe European Broadcasting Union had been under pressure to act. Last week, it tightened its rules around voting and promotion ahead of the key meeting, but didn\u2019t signal what would happen to Israel\u2019s participation. These are the <\/p>\n

\n\tSpeaking to Deadline several months back<\/a> about Eurovision\u2019s global expansion, director Martin Green said Eurovision is \u201cnot immune to what\u2019s going on in the world, and neither should we be,\u201d before adding: \u201cBut I do think there is a place, particularly in sport and entertainment, for major events that seek, momentarily, to sit to one side. There has to be a space where we can come together and just enjoy ourselves, but also, more seriously, to paint a picture of a world as it could be, rather than as it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tRussia has been banned from the contest since the start of the war in Ukraine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UPDATE, 08.36 a.m. PT, December 10: Iceland has joined Spain, Ireland, Slovenia and the Netherlands in boycotting next…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":185157,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[93,17948,4603,61,60,3410,7068,2846,5155,282],"class_list":{"0":"post-185156","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-eurovision","10":"tag-eurovision-song-contest","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-israel","14":"tag-israel-gaza-war","15":"tag-spain","16":"tag-the-netherlands","17":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185156\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}