The European Broadcasting Union (EBU), organizer of the Eurovision Song Contest, has postponed the decision on whether Israel will be able to participate in the next event until December, due to the ceasefire reached in the Gaza Strip, that entity confirmed on Monday.
In a statement sent to the French agency AFP, the EBU revealed that “it has decided to include this issue on the agenda of its winter ordinary general assembly, which will take place in December, instead of organizing an extraordinary session”, as had been confirmed in September, following multiple calls for a boycott to be implemented.
This decision was taken “in light of recent developments in the Middle East” and will allow member countries to discuss “openly and in person” about the next Eurovision Song Contest, which will take place in Austria in 2026. In recent months, Slovenia, Spain, Ireland, Iceland and the Netherlands have announced that they will not participate in the competition to be held in Vienna in May 2026, if Israel is admitted as competitor. In September, the board of directors of Spanish public television, RTVE, approved “by an absolute majority” the boycott of the next edition, if Israel participates.
Spain was the first country in the group known as the “Big 5” to announce this boycott. The “Big 5” are Spain, the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Italy, the biggest contributors to the organization, and their songs have direct access to the final in each edition. In the Netherlands, the public broadcasting association Avrotros justified the decision by citing “serious violations of press freedom” committed by Israel in Gaza. Austria, the festival’s host country in 2026, for its part, regretted the calls for a boycott if Israel participates in the next edition, according to AFP.
The boycotts are due to Israel’s military attacks on the Palestinian territory of the Gaza Strip in the last two years, which killed at least 67,000 people and were classified as genocide by an independent international commission of investigation of the United Nations. In recent days, a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas came into force, promoted by the United States and negotiated over several days in Sharm el-Sheikh with the mediation of delegations from Egypt, Qatar and Turkey.
The Eurovision Song Contest is organized by the UER, founded in 1950, in cooperation with public operators from more than 35 countries, including Rádio e Televisão de Portugal (RTP). The contest has been held annually since 1956 and there have been countries excluded, such as Belarus, in 2021, after the re-election of President Aleksandr Lukashenko, and Russia, in 2022, after the invasion of Ukraine. Israel was the first non-European country to participate, in 1973, and has won four times.
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