It would be “very difficult” for Ireland to return to Eurovision unless Israel is no longer part of the song contest or there is a “very significant change” in Gaza and the West Bank, RT\u00c9 Director General Kevin Bakhurst has said.<\/p>\n
Speaking on RT\u00c9’s Behind the Story podcast, Mr Bakhurst also said he does not believe it will be possible for organisers to remove Israel from the competition.<\/p>\n
The song contest is run by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), a collection of public service broadcasters on the continent and around the world.<\/p>\n
The broadcasters in each participating country are responsible for putting forward an act or choosing to participate at all.<\/p>\n
Ireland, Iceland, the Netherlands, Spain, and Slovenia recently boycotted the 2026 contest \u2013 with RT\u00c9 also ruling out 2027.<\/p>\n
RT\u00c9 said it would also not broadcast the competition, stating it “cannot be justified given the appalling and ongoing loss of lives in Gaza and the humanitarian crisis”.<\/p>\n
Asked how Ireland could return to the competition, Mr Bakhurst said: “I’ve spoken to a lot of our European counterparts on that, and obviously there’s four or five other countries who took the same decision and may make the same decision for next year.<\/p>\n
“I felt in a more straightforward position as director general of the Irish broadcaster, knowing where the Irish audience is and public is.<\/p>\n
“You know, the decision is harder for some countries because their public opinion is much more divided.”<\/p>\n
Mr Bakhurst, who previously held senior positions at the BBC, continued: “I said it was ‘unconscionable’ to take part last year.<\/p>\n
“I think it would have been very, very difficult to take part next year and that’s why we took the decision early, given the ongoing conditions in Gaza and [the] West Bank and other parts of the region, and given where the Irish audience is.<\/p>\n
“I don’t think it’s going to be easy to go back until there’s a very significant change on the ground, or until Israel is not in the Eurovision.”<\/p>\n
Asked if he believed the European Broadcasting Union should remove Israel from the competition, Mr Bakhurst said: “I don’t think it’s possible.<\/p>\n
“The EBU is run by its members or responsible for its members.<\/p>\n
“There are enough significant members in the EBU that it’s impossible for the EBU to make that decision, in my view.<\/p>\n
“You look at the UK, Germany, France, very publicly on the record, Austria on the record, saying they absolutely do not want Israel excluded.<\/p>\n
“So I don’t think it’s really possible for [the] EBU to make that decision.”<\/p>\n
He added: “I wouldn’t criticise the EBU on that front at all.<\/p>\n
“I think they’ve been treading a very, very difficult line on it.”<\/p>\n
Earlier this week, the Netherlands said it would not participate in next year’s Eurovision Song Contest, citing “sensitivities” over Israel’s participation.<\/p>\n
You can listen to Behind the Story on the RT\u00c9 Listen app.<\/p>\n
You can also find episodes on Apple<\/a> and Spotify<\/a>.<\/p>\n Source: Press Association<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It would be “very difficult” for Ireland to return to Eurovision unless Israel is no longer part of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":670210,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[61,60,80],"class_list":["post-670209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670209","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=670209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670209\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/670210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=670209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=670209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=670209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}