{"id":169500,"date":"2025-12-05T12:17:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T12:17:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/169500\/"},"modified":"2025-12-05T12:17:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T12:17:12","slug":"the-next-threat-to-israel-at-eurovision-is-coming-from-inside-the-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/169500\/","title":{"rendered":"The next threat to Israel at Eurovision is coming from inside the house"},"content":{"rendered":"

You might think the Kan public broadcaster would breathe a sigh of relief with the news that Israel won\u2019t be barred<\/a> from next year\u2019s Eurovision.<\/p>\n

The looming threat of ousting Israel from the annual song contest has been removed. Or has it?<\/p>\n

While one obstacle has been overcome, the next threat to Israel\u2019s participation at the Eurovision is coming from inside the house.<\/p>\n

Many anti-Israel activists have shouted online for years that Israel does not belong in the Eurovision because it isn\u2019t even in Europe. True fans, however, understand that the criterion for partaking is not geographic, but membership in the European Broadcasting Union. (Australia, which has competed since 2015, is certainly not in Europe.)<\/p>\n

In order to maintain EBU membership, Israel must have a functioning, independent public broadcaster that provides both news and entertainment programming. And there\u2019s the rub.<\/p>\n

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For a number of years, allies of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have been making efforts to shut down or gut Israel\u2019s public broadcaster beyond recognition. Such a move would make Israel ineligible<\/a> to be an EBU member and end its 53-year run in the Eurovision.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tEden Golan of Israel enters the arena during the flag parade before the Grand Final of the Eurovision Song Contest in Malmo, Sweden, May 11, 2024. (AP\/Martin Meissner)<\/p>\n

While the government has not been successful so far in that goal, it took a sharp step forward this week with the establishment<\/a> of an ad hoc committee designed to push through media reform legislation by circumventing the permanent committee that has stymied it.<\/p>\n

Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi \u2013 a member of Netanyahu\u2019s ruling Likud party \u2013 has, since taking office in late 2022, made no secret of his desire to completely shut down Kan<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But Karhi\u2019s efforts appeared to hit a wall in January, when fellow Likud MK David Bitan, chairman of the Knesset Economic Affairs Committee, shut down<\/a> legislation that would have shuttered<\/a> Kan \u2013 after it had already passed a preliminary Knesset vote 49-46 last year \u2013 declaring that \u201cpublic broadcasting is necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n

However on Monday, the Knesset voted 59-51 \u2013 against the advice of the Knesset legal adviser \u2013 to set up a committee that would bypass Bitan and fast-track legislation giving the government significant control<\/a> over broadcast media, news sites, and other media, after Bitan refused to let it advance.<\/p>\n

While Karhi\u2019s bill to shut down Kan is not currently on the new committee\u2019s agenda, the ease with which he circumvented Bitan and the established path for passing laws raises a red flag for those concerned about media freedom.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tLikud lawmakers (L-R) Shlomo Karhi, David Bitan and David Amsalem attend a committee meeting at the Knesset on November 20, 2023. (Yonatan Sindel\/Flash90)<\/p>\n

Even if the legislation shuttering public broadcasting doesn\u2019t make a return, Karhi has also advanced a bill that would put Kan\u2019s budget under direct government control and another that would sell off<\/a> the channel\u2019s news division \u2013 both of which would likely see Israel ousted from the EBU.<\/p>\n

The EBU has taken notice of the legislative efforts. In fact, the organization has pointed to the efforts by the government to shut down Kan in its defense of allowing Israel to remain in the Eurovision in recent years, highlighting the public broadcaster\u2019s independence.<\/p>\n

When the Knesset voted in favor of Karhi\u2019s bill to shut down Kan in a preliminary ballot late last year, the EBU issued a statement<\/a> saying it was \u201cdeeply concerned\u201d by the measure and sent a letter to Israeli lawmakers warning that it would \u201calmost certainly lead to Kan\u2019s exclusion\u201d from the EBU. It also expressed concern that a separate bill regarding Kan\u2019s budget would put \u201cat risk the editorial and financial independence of public media.\u201d<\/p>\n

Israel has already been down this path before.<\/p>\n

In 2017, the Knesset passed a law<\/a> that would have split the news<\/a> division off from the public broadcaster \u2013 a move pushed through by Netanyahu that was then temporarily blocked by the High Court.<\/p>\n

When Netta Barzilai won the Eurovision a year later, Netanyahu ultimately backed off entirely<\/a> from that plan<\/a> in order to avoid derailing Israel\u2019s ability to host the 2019 contest in Tel Aviv.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tNetta Barzilai celebrates after winning the Eurovision Song Contest grand final in Lisbon, Portugal, May 12, 2018. (AP\/Armando Franca)<\/p>\n

But if the EBU had decided on Thursday to kick Israel out of Eurovision, coalition lawmakers would almost certainly have reacted with dismay, condemnation and expressions of outrage.<\/p>\n

On Thursday night, Culture Minister Miki Zohar issued a statement saying the EBU \u201cmade the right decision in keeping Israel in the Eurovision Song Contest,\u201d adding that \u201cthe people of Israel will continue to create, connect, and illuminate the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2023, Zohar told Ynet that right-wing voters want to see Kan shut down entirely, and that the \u201cproblematic\u201d portion of the public broadcaster is its \u201cnot always professional\u201d news division, suggesting that he would keep only its scripted and cultural programming.<\/p>\n

Zohar and other government lawmakers need to decide \u2014 do they want to keep Israel on the Eurovision stage, or do they want to end Israeli public broadcasting as we know it? Because they can\u2019t have both.<\/p>\n


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