The Eurovision Song Contest is facing an “existential” crisis as a growing band of countries threatens to boycott the 2026 edition if Israel is allowed to take part.
An intensifying cultural backlash against Israel over its war in Gaza has swept Europe in recent weeks, with Spain’s premier calling for the country to be banned from international sporting events, a Belgian festival excluding an Israeli conductor and the surge of nations demanding Israel’s ejection from the flagship music competition.
Europe is grappling with whether cultural bans on Israeli artists and athletes are legitimate sanctions. While some EU governments frame them as proportionate responses to the war in Gaza, other European administrations, Israeli officials and Jewish groups argue they risk crossing into antisemitism.
Though Eurovision is not scheduled until May in Vienna, the self-proclaimed “non-political” contest — run by the European Broadcasting Union, an alliance of public service media with 113 members in 56 countries — already looks set to be overshadowed again by controversy surrounding Israel’s participation.
In a statement, Eurovision Director Martin Green said the organization is “still consulting” with EBU members on how to “manage participation and geopolitical tensions around the Eurovision Song Contest.”
“We understand the concerns and deeply held views around the ongoing conflict in the Middle East,” he said.
The fallout from those geopolitical tensions now amounts to the gravest threat to Eurovision in its history, according to one expert on the competition.
“There’s definitely been a lot of political moments, and what the EBU has really struggled with at times is consistency in terms of how it enforces the rules,” said Paul Jordan, a longtime Eurovision pundit who also goes by Dr. Eurovision, after writing his Ph. D. on the contest.
“But the current situation is unprecedented. This is the first time when you’ve got a group of countries saying they won’t participate because of another country … I think it’s probably the most serious challenge that Eurovision has had,” he warned.
‘Political instrument’
Spain on Tuesday became the latest country to join the revolt, as a majority of members on the management board of the country’s public broadcaster RTVE voted to withdraw from next year’s edition of Eurovision if Israel is allowed to participate.
The Spanish boycott threat is the latest salvo in an escalating clash between Madrid and Israel, as Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar have butted heads over sanctions, weapons embargoes and pro-Palestinian protests at a prestigious cycling race.
The move — landing the same morning that a United Nations commission concluded Israel is committing genocide in Gaza — is set to trigger a crisis within the EBU because Spain is one of the top five financial contributors to the public broadcasting association, a distinction that has automatically guaranteed the country a slot in the Eurovision final.
If Israel is permitted to participate in next year’s 70th edition of the competition, Spain will miss the final for the first time since the country’s debut in 1961.
Israel’s public broadcaster KAN has said that the country is preparing to participate next May and “is meticulous in fully complying with the rules of the competition and will continue to do so.”
Israel’s Minister for Culture and Sport Miki Zohar has said the threats to withdraw from a number of countries are “a shameful and hypocritical step that contradicts the values of competition and the spirit of connection that underlies it.”
Ireland, Slovenia and the Netherlands had already threatened to boycott — with Iceland indicating less definitively that it may withdraw if Israel takes part — with countries citing the deadly suffering in Gaza under Israel’s bombardment, plus the erosion of press freedom and targeting of journalists.
According to the Gaza Health Ninistry, which is under the Hamas-run government, more than 64,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s assault. U.N. agencies and independent experts consider the ministry’s casualty records as generally reliable. The retaliation began after Hamas militants killed some 1,200 people on Israeli soil on Oct. 7, 2023 and took around 250 hostages into Gaza.
Dutch public broadcaster AVROTROS voiced concerns Friday that the Israeli government interfered in this year’s contest and used it “as a political instrument.” Israel came top of the viewer vote in the 2025 event, prompting questions from some other countries about possible manipulation of the voting system.
‘Tense few months ahead’
The EBU has been in extensive talks with its members about Israel’s participation in the 2026 competition, since the issue was raised at a meeting of national broadcasters in London in June.
Green, the director, said it is up to each EBU member to decide whether they want to participate in the contest, and they have until mid-December to confirm if they wish to take part in next year’s event.
Broadcasters will meet for the next EBU general assembly in Geneva on Dec. 4 and 5, where they could vote on Israel’s participation in the contest.
Some broadcasters have rowed in behind the EBU’s current stance that the competition should remain apolitical.
Germany’s umbrella organization of regional broadcasters, ARD, will support whatever decision the EBU makes, said SWR (the regional broadcaster in charge of organizing Germany’s Eurovision participation) in a statement to POLITICO.
An SWR spokesperson said Eurovision is a “competition organized by broadcasters, not by governments,” that connects people “regardless of origin, religion, or beliefs.”
The director general of the U.K’s public broadcaster said this week that Eurovision has “never been about politics,” and it is up to the EBU to decide who participates.
That said, in 2022, the EBU banned Russia from the competition following the country’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, symbolizing the awkward intersection of politics and culture at which Eurovision sits.
Eurovision expert Jordan, who also worked for the music contest’s communications team for three years, warns that the EBU is currently walking a tightrope on Israel, with a “tense few months ahead,” which have “the potential for the contest to unravel.”
“I think the beauty of Eurovision, and the reason why it’s lasted so long, is that it has been an inclusive space. I think it would be a great shame if it becomes a political football,” he said.
Aitor Hernández-Morales contributed to this report.
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