{"id":577947,"date":"2026-05-11T11:29:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T11:29:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/577947\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T11:29:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T11:29:10","slug":"ebu-called-out-by-eurovision-fans-for-unfairly-targeting-israel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/577947\/","title":{"rendered":"EBU called out by Eurovision fans for unfairly targeting Israel"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eurovision fans worldwide started a grassroots campaign saying that the European Broadcasting Union<\/a> (EBU) has been treating the Israeli delegation unfairly following a warning issued by the competition\u2019s managing director to KAN, Israel\u2019s public broadcaster, over the weekend.<\/p>\n

The campaign began just ahead of the opening of the 70th edition of the song contest, which is set to start on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

In light of new rules adopted by the EBU<\/a> against campaigns urging Eurovision Song Contest voters to cast ballots for particular artists, Martin Green, the competition\u2019s managing director, confirmed on Saturday that he had issued a formal warning to KAN over an advertising campaign.<\/p>\n

Eurovoix News reported that advertisements in 13 languages featuring Noam Bettan<\/a>, the Israeli representative, had been released, calling on voters to use all 10 of their votes for Israel. These ads included specific instructions on how to cast votes.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn Friday, May 8, it was brought to our attention that videos with an on-screen instruction to \u2018vote 10 times for Israel\u2019 had been published and released by the artist representing KAN,\u201d Green said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\"NoamNoam Bettan is Israel’s Eurovision contestant. (credit: Shai Franco\/Courtesy of EBU)<\/p>\n

\u201cWithin 20 minutes, we had contacted the KAN delegation to ask them to immediately stop any distribution of the videos and remove them from any platforms where they had been published,\u201d he said. \u201cThey immediately acted to do this.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe voting instructions of the Eurovision Song Contest<\/a>, which cover promotion, are predominantly directed at discouraging large-scale, funded third-party campaigns, and we are satisfied that this video did not form part of such a campaign,\u201d Green added.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, employing a direct call to action to vote 10 times for a single artist or song is also not in line with our rules or the spirit of the competition,\u201d he continued. \u201cNevertheless, we have issued a formal warning letter to KAN and will continue to monitor any promotional activities carefully and take appropriate action where needed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eurovision fans respond to Green<\/p>\n

In response, some Eurovision fans in WhatsApp chat groups began circulating a message in several languages to be emailed to Green.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am writing to express my profound disappointment and to lodge a formal complaint regarding the EBU\u2019s recent demand that the Israeli delegation remove its promotional campaign for Noam Bettan\u2019s song, \u2018Michelle,\u2019 as well as the subsequent formal warning issued to KAN,\u201d the message read, in part.<\/p>\n

It went on to say that \u201cthis drastic action is highly disproportionate, entirely unjustified, and strongly appears to be a case of targeted harassment against the Israeli team to appease external political pressure.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAs you have publicly acknowledged yourself, the promotional materials produced by the Israeli delegation did **not** violate the strict new regulations regarding third-party or government funding. It was a standard, self-contained campaign by the artist and the broadcaster,\u201d it continued.<\/p>\n

The message further stated: \u201cYour justification for forcing the removal of these videos \u2013 that stating \u2018vote 10 times\u2019 violates the \u2018spirit of the competition\u2019 \u2013 is arbitrary and absurd.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe EBU\u2019s own voting regulations officially allow viewers to cast up to 10 votes per user.<\/p>\n

\u201cPenalizing an artist for simply educating fans about the official mechanics of your own voting system is entirely unreasonable. There is no rule stating that an artist cannot encourage maximum support from their fan base,\u201d the message read.<\/p>\n

It cited examples of other countries running similar campaigns that have not been rebuked, calling this a \u201cglaring double standard.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among the examples cited were the promotional campaigns that Malta and Poland are currently running.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe EBU claims to champion a non-political event built on fairness and unity. Yet, forcing Noam Bettan and the Israeli delegation to walk on eggshells while turning a blind eye to identical or more extensive practices by other nations proves the exact opposite,\u201d the letter concluded.<\/p>\n

Yifat Gat, an Israeli-born artist living in France for years, said that she knew many people who were sending the message to the EBU in English and French.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a growing frustration among Eurovision fans who simply want to enjoy the show,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels like BDS [the Boycott, Sanctions, and Divestment movement] has hijacked the event, bullying people into applying double standards against Israel… No one likes it,\u201d Gat added.<\/p>\n

This message of protest was \u201cjust a way of saying, \u2018Enough is enough\u2019 \u2013 let the fans enjoy the music.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is no way to know exactly how many people have sent this message to the EBU. Still, it is a sign of the times in a year during which five countries \u2013 Iceland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Slovenia, and Spain \u2013 are boycotting the contest because of Israel\u2019s continued participation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Eurovision fans worldwide started a grassroots campaign saying that the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) has been treating the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":577948,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[3854,63775,45567,96,197685,18168,9084,391,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-577947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-antisemitism","tag-antizionism","tag-boycott","tag-entertainment","tag-european-broadcasting-union","tag-eurovision","tag-israel","tag-tv","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577947","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=577947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577947\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/577948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=577947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=577947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=577947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}