{"id":168676,"date":"2025-12-05T00:48:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T00:48:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/168676\/"},"modified":"2025-12-05T00:48:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T00:48:12","slug":"ireland-and-spain-boycott-eurovision-after-israel-allowed-to-compete","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/168676\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland and Spain boycott Eurovision after Israel allowed to compete"},"content":{"rendered":"

Since its 1956 beginnings in a Swiss theatre, the Eurovision Song Contest has brought escapism and elation to billions of people across the globe. Yesterday, however, it divided a continent.<\/p>\n

The contest is dealing with its greatest political crisis after countries including Ireland and Spain announced they would boycott next year\u2019s competition because of Israel\u2019s participation.<\/p>\n

The media organisations behind the contest, including the BBC, effectively approved Israel\u2019s participation in a secret ballot against a backdrop of \u00adboycott threats over the war in Gaza<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Netherlands and Slovenia also pulled out of the planned event in Austria with other national broadcasters in Belgium, Finland, Sweden and Iceland yet to confirm their involvement.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Protesters demonstrated against Israel\u2019s inclusion in the competition during a performance this year by Yuval Raphael, the country\u2019s entry<\/p>\n

HOLLANDSE HOOGTE\/SHUTTERSTOCK<\/p>\n

The BBC, whose coverage over the decades has been presented by Terry Wogan and his fellow Irishman Graham Norton, said on Thursday that it supported the \u201ccollective decision\u201d made by members of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and said that it was about \u201cbeing inclusive\u201d.<\/p>\n

The continental split comes only six years after Tel Aviv hosted the 2019 contest. The run-up to yesterday\u2019s meeting of the EBU in Geneva was dominated by Israel<\/a> over its actions in Gaza. <\/p>\n

There were also allegations that it had interfered in voting for this year\u2019s contest when its entrant Yuval Raphael came 14th in the \u00adjury vote but after the public vote, which allows the public to pay to vote up to 20 times each, finished second.<\/p>\n

\"Yuval<\/p>\n

Raphael at this year\u2019s competition in Basel, Switzerland<\/p>\n

SANDER KONING\/ANP\/ALAMY<\/p>\n

The Dutch broadcaster Avrotros claimed that there had been \u201cproven interference\u201d and, as part of its boycott threat, accused Israel of a \u201cserious violation of press freedom\u201d in Gaza. Israel has said it faces a global smear campaign.<\/p>\n

Martin Green, the British director of Eurovision<\/a>, said after Thursday\u2019s ballot that he was \u201cpleased\u201d the media organisations had been given an \u201copportunity to debate\u201d Israel\u2019s place in the contest. Green said the \u201cemphatic result\u201d of the vote showed \u201ca belief that the Eurovision Song Contest shouldn\u2019t be used as a political theatre\u201d. He added: \u201cIt must retain some sense of neutrality.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ballot was not a direct vote on Israel\u2019s participation, but would have led to one if a majority had voted against the measures on how to \u201creinforce trust\u201d in the event. <\/p>\n

The Irish broadcaster RT\u00c9 said that Ireland\u2019s participation \u201cremains unconscionable given the appalling loss of lives in Gaza and humanitarian crisis\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"Aerial<\/p>\n

Destruction in Khan Yunis, Gaza<\/p>\n

JEHAD ALSHRAFI\/ANADOLU\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n

Avrotros said its \u201cparticipation under the current circumstances is incompatible with the public values that are essential to us\u201d. The Spanish broadcaster RTVE said its board of directors had agreed in September that \u201cSpain would withdraw from Eurovision if Israel was part of it\u201d. The Slovenian broadcaster RTV said that it was pulling out of the competition \u201con behalf of the 20,000 children who died in Gaza\u201d.<\/p>\n

It is not the first diplomatic row to \u00adengulf the supposedly non-political contest although is arguably its biggest. Three years ago, members of the EBU voted to ban Russia after its invasion of Ukraine. In 2009, Georgia was reprimanded by the EBU for its suspiciously anti-Russian song title We Don\u2019t Wanna Put In. Last year, Israel had to change the lyrics of its song, originally called October Rain, over suggestions that it referenced the Hamas attack of October 7, 2023.<\/p>\n

Before yesterday\u2019s vote, the Austrian hosts of the contest in Vienna in May appealed to countries not to boycott.<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

Protests in Malmo, Sweden, before the 2024 event<\/p>\n

TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER JACK HILL<\/p>\n

They were supported by Wolfram Weimer, the German culture minister, who said Germany would not participate if Israel was excluded. \u201cIsrael belongs in the Eurovision Song Contest,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Frederik Delaplace, the chairman of the Belgian broadcaster VRT, said afterwards that it was \u201ca rift within the 70-year-old Eurovision family\u201d.<\/p>\n

Isaac Herzog, the president of Israel, said, however, that he was \u201cpleased\u201d Israel would \u201conce again participate\u201d, adding that he hoped \u201cthe competition will remain one that champions culture, music, friendship between nations and cross-border cultural understanding\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"Eden<\/p>\n

Golan during rehearsals for the grand final in 2024<\/p>\n

LEONHARD FOEGER\/REUTERS<\/p>\n

Politics has always played a part in Eurovision<\/p>\n

Eurovision has always been a strange beast as the coverage in this country has amply demonstrated. The BBC has long felt it was safest to regard it as a camp confection that shouldn\u2019t be taken too seriously (writes Ben Dowell).<\/p>\n

For many years, Terry Wogan and then Graham Norton have guided us through its highs and terrible lows. Often having fun at its expense. But behind the sequins and smiles, Norton, Wogan and the BBC knew that politics had always played a part in Eurovision. As they have observed, some countries just tend not to vote for each other and some vote for each other all the time, Greece and Cyprus, for instance.<\/p>\n

British acts have often felt aggrieved and rats have been smelt, although Sam Ryder was a jolly outlier in 2022, coming second to the Ukrainian entry that clearly benefited from international sympathy.<\/p>\n

Politics has always bubbled under the surface, which has always slightly tarnished its innocence. And with news that Spain, Netherlands, Slovenia and Ireland will boycott next year\u2019s contest after it was decided Israel could compete, international tensions have reached boiling point.<\/p>\n

Even if Eurovision survives, it would be hard to imagine the competition will be the same again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Since its 1956 beginnings in a Swiss theatre, the Eurovision Song Contest has brought escapism and elation to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":168677,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-168676","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168676"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168676\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}