{"id":160496,"date":"2025-09-25T23:42:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-25T23:42:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/160496\/"},"modified":"2025-09-25T23:42:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T23:42:07","slug":"israels-broadcaster-kan-issues-statement-ahead-of-ebus-extraordinary-vote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/160496\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel’s broadcaster KAN issues statement ahead of EBU\u2019s extraordinary vote"},"content":{"rendered":"

In light of the EBU\u2019s decision to convene an extraordinary General Assembly<\/a> this November to decide Israel\u2019s participation in Eurovision 2026, Israel\u2019s public broadcaster, KAN, has issued a strong response. The move comes after an impasse at the EBU Executive Board, where members were unable to reach agreement on whether Israel should remain in the contest.<\/p>\n

\"EBU<\/p>\n

Related storyIsrael’s Eurovision future to be decided by extraordinary vote in November<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

KAN\u2019s statement emphasizes its hope that Eurovision continues to be governed as a cultural, non-political event. Central to KAN\u2019s contention is the procedural threshold required by the EBU statutes. The broadcaster states that extraordinary decisions \u2013 such as revoking Israel\u2019s participation \u2013 must secure a 75% majority vote in the General Assembly, underscoring the gravity and rarity of what\u2019s being proposed. KAN expresses confidence that the EBU will maintain the contest\u2019s professional, cultural, and non-political character.<\/p>\n

Update: The EBU has confirmed to The Times of Israel<\/a> that a simple majority (>50%) at the extraordinary assembly is needed to exclude Israel from Eurovision 2026.<\/p>\n

Statement from Israeli broadcaster KAN<\/p>\n

Kan, the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation, expresses its firm hope that the Eurovision Song Contest will continue to uphold its cultural and non-political identity.<\/p>\n

The potential disqualification of Israel\u2019s public broadcaster KAN – one of the contest\u2019s long-standing, popular, and successful participants – would be especially troubling ahead of the 70th edition of the song contest, which was founded as a symbol of unity, solidarity, and fellowship. Any such move could have wide-ranging implications for the competition and the values for which the EBU stands.<\/p>\n

The EBU Statutes stipulate for a good reason that extraordinary decisions of this kind require a 75% majority of the General Assembly – an exceptional majority. We are confident that the EBU will safeguard the contest\u2019s professional, cultural, and non-political character as it marks the historic 70 years milstone of uniting by music.<\/p>\n

Israel in the Eurovision Song Contest <\/a>Israel 2018: Netta – “Toy”<\/p>\n

Israel has participated in Eurovision 47 times since their debut in 1973<\/a>. They have won the contest four times:<\/p>\n

Israel 2018: Netta – “Toy”<\/p>\n

Israel has never finished last in the contest! Since the introduction of the Semi-finals in 2004, Israel has qualified for the Grand Final 14 out of 21 times.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In light of the EBU\u2019s decision to convene an extraordinary General Assembly this November to decide Israel\u2019s participation…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":160497,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[6847,55724,96,65538,18168,9084,72981,229,391,56,54,55,65541],"class_list":["post-160496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-disqualification","tag-ebu","tag-entertainment","tag-esc","tag-eurovision","tag-israel","tag-kan","tag-politics","tag-tv","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-vienna-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=160496"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160496\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/160497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=160496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=160496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}