{"id":131300,"date":"2025-11-12T14:42:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-12T14:42:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/131300\/"},"modified":"2025-11-12T14:42:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-12T14:42:10","slug":"as-eurovision-decision-looms-host-austria-lobbies-for-israel-to-remain-in-contest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/131300\/","title":{"rendered":"As Eurovision decision looms, host Austria lobbies for Israel to remain in contest"},"content":{"rendered":"

With less than a month to go until the European Broadcasting Union makes a final decision on Israel\u2019s participation in next year\u2019s Eurovision, host Austria has been pushing publicly and behind the scenes for the Jewish state to be allowed to take part in the song contest.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Israel is moving full steam ahead with its plans to compete, with the newest season of \u201cHakochav Haba\u201d (Rising Star), which traditionally selects the country\u2019s Eurovision entrant, officially kicking off Tuesday night.<\/p>\n

While the decision on whether Israel will be allowed to remain in the competition is slated for early next month, the EBU has remained mum on how such a verdict will be reached, with signs pointing to the scrapping of a vote by member countries entirely.<\/p>\n

Over the weekend, Roland Wei\u00dfmann, the director general of the Austrian public broadcaster ORF \u2014 which is hosting next year\u2019s contest in Vienna \u2014 visited Israel, meeting with officials from Israel\u2019s Kan public broadcaster as well as President Isaac Herzog.<\/p>\n

According to a Kan spokeswoman, Wei\u00dfmann\u2019s visit was aimed at \u201cworking to ensure that Israel participates in the Eurovision Song Contest\u201d next year in Vienna.<\/p>\n

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Wei\u00dfmann told Herzog that \u201cIsrael is an integral part of the contest,\u201d according to Kan, echoing comments he and other Austrian officials have made publicly.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tKan CEO Golan Yochpaz (left) and Austrian public broadcaster Roland Wei\u00dfmann (second from left) meet with President Isaac Herzog (second from right) in Jerusalem on November 7, 2025. (Courtesy)<\/p>\n

The public broadcasters of some European countries, including Spain, Ireland and the Netherlands, have pledged to withdraw entirely if Israel takes part in the contest, and several others, including Iceland, Slovenia and Belgium, have threatened to follow suit.<\/p>\n

Last month, Wei\u00dfmann was quoted<\/a> in ORF as saying that he was working to convince other participating countries that Israel should compete, adding that Vienna was deploying \u201cdiplomacy\u201d and \u201ctact\u201d to bring them around.<\/p>\n

He also said that the \u201cfinancial risk\u201d posed by some countries pulling out of the competition in protest, even a member of the \u201cBig Five\u201d \u2013 the five main EBU contributors, which include Spain \u2013 \u201cis very manageable. Should one or two countries not participate, it is absolutely feasible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Austrian Chancellor Christian Stocker said last month<\/a> that it would be \u201ca fatal mistake to exclude Israel\u201d from next year\u2019s competition and that \u201cbased on our history alone, I would never be in favor of that,\u201d a reference to Austria\u2019s complicity in the Holocaust.<\/p>\n

As the calls to bar Israel from the competition mounted, the EBU announced in September<\/a> that it would hold a special online vote for members in early November to decide whether to allow the Jewish state to take part.<\/p>\n

However, on October 13 \u2014 the day that the final 20 living hostages in Gaza were freed, three days into the current ceasefire \u2014 the EBU scrapped the plans<\/a> to hold a vote, citing \u201crecent developments in the Middle East.\u201d Instead, the EBU said that a decision would be made at its General Assembly scheduled for December 4 and 5 in Geneva.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tThe headquarters of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which organizes the Eurovision Song Contest, seen in Geneva, on October 6, 2025. (Fabrice COFFRINI \/ AFP)<\/p>\n

But the body has refused to say whether a vote would still be held, or how the decision would otherwise be reached. Asked by The Times of Israel this week about the process, the EBU would only say that the General Assembly would \u201cdiscuss participation\u201d in the contest, and that \u201cfurther details\u201d would be provided later to EBU members.<\/p>\n

The EBU also confirmed that members will not have long to make a final decision on whether to participate once the ruling on Israel is finalized, with the deadline remaining \u201cmid-December.\u201d<\/p>\n

A spokeswoman for Kan told The Times of Israel that the public broadcaster had not been provided with any more details on how the EBU decision would be made.<\/p>\n

Israel is nevertheless marching ahead with efforts to select its contestant for next year\u2019s competition, kicking off the process with the premiere on Tuesday night of singing competition \u201cHakochav Haba.\u201d<\/p>\n

Neither the hosts nor the judges gave any indication during the show\u2019s kickoff that Israel\u2019s participation at next year\u2019s Eurovision hangs in the balance, discussing instead what kind of singer and song the country should send this year and predicting a win for the Jewish state.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tYuval Raphael is crowned the winner of \u2018Hakochav Haba\u2019 on January 23, 2025, and will represent Israel at the 2025 Eurovision. (Ortal Dahan Ziv)<\/p>\n

Keren Peles, a judge on the show who also wrote the ballads that Israel sent to the 2024 and 2025 contests, suggested that the time had come to send a happy, uplifting song, with all the living hostages returned home and the war seemingly ending.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the person who represents us this year deserves to sing a song that is appropriate for their age, and we can flip a switch and smile and sing about \u2018Espresso Macchiato<\/a>,’\u201d said Peles, referencing the irreverent and popular song sent by Estonia to the 2025 competition.<\/p>\n

The Walla news site, however, reported last month that the show has nevertheless put a \u201cplan B\u201d in place in case Israel does get kicked out of the competition, since the grand prize on \u201cHakochav Haba\u201d is currently the right to represent Israel at Eurovision.<\/p>\n

According to the report, the show set up a NIS 1 million ($313,000) backup prize, and the judges have been instructed to give feedback not just on contestants\u2019 suitability for the Eurovision but also their overall performance.<\/p>\n

The controversy over Israel\u2019s participation heavily overshadowed the 2023 and 2024 Eurovision contests, with most international media coverage of those competitions focusing on the efforts to bar Jerusalem by countries outraged by the war against Hamas in Gaza. The subsequent backlash and campaign to drum up support for Israel\u2019s contestants led them to ultimately soar in the public vote.<\/p>\n

At the 2024 competition in Malmo, Sweden, Israel\u2019s Eden Golan faced death threats<\/a> as mass anti-Israel protests swarmed the city, and boos rang out<\/a> inside the arena. Golan, who sang \u201cHurricane,\u201d came in 12th in the jury vote and 2nd in the popular vote to finish 5th<\/a> overall.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tEden Golan of Israel performs the song \u2018Hurricane\u2019 during the Grand Final of the Eurovision Song Contest in Malmo, Sweden, May 11, 2024. (AP\/Martin Meissner)<\/p>\n

A year later in Basel, Switzerland, Yuval Raphael<\/a> \u2013 a survivor of the Nova festival massacre on October 7, 2023 during the Hamas-led attack that started the war \u2013 also faced protests and threats<\/a>, as well as a smattering of Palestinian flags, which were allowed in the arena after the Swiss hosts loosened the rules that normally only allow flags of participating nations.<\/p>\n

Raphael, who performed \u201cNew Day Will Rise,\u201d topped the public vote but came 15th overall with the juries, ending up in 2nd place.<\/p>\n

Israel has participated in the song competition since 1973, backing out of only three contests in the past 52 years \u2013 1980, 1984 and 1997 \u2013 when the dates conflicted with Memorial Day or Holocaust Remembrance Day. Israel has won the contest on four occasions \u2013 in 1978, 1979, 1998, and most recently in 2018, with Netta Barzilai\u2019s \u201cToy\u201d \u2014 and has hosted it three times.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With less than a month to go until the European Broadcasting Union makes a final decision on Israel\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":131301,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[156,111,139,69,437],"class_list":{"0":"post-131300","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-new-zealand","10":"tag-newzealand","11":"tag-nz","12":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131300"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131300\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}