Eurovision Israel

For the hard of thinking: Russia invaded Ukraine.

There’s no comparison between Russia and Israel.

The UN and Amnesty? Did you type that with a straight face?

It didn't start on Oct 7. Hamas and other evil actors have been firing rockets at Israel, trying to murder as many civilians as possible, since 2007.

In addition to other Palestinian terrorists blowing up innocent Israeli children in buses and cafes, stabbing innocent Israeli children, mowing down innocent Israeli children, slaughtering innocent Israeli families in their beds and worse, at least since the first intifada.

It started long before Oct 7.

I find it ironic how the same people who are so loud about the innocent Gazans dying, can in the same breath damn all Israelis (actually, usually it's all Jews except for the 'good' ones, ie the anti-zionist Jews).

Either civilians are guilty by association or they're not, make up your mind.

It's only what a big chunk of the viewing audience in every country do - the diaspora vote, the love-in between Cyprus and Greece etc. That's Eurovision.

Can't conflate the murderous actions of a madman with singers who just want to show their talent on the world stage ?

Let's just cut the crap then and make them the only entrant.

Israel could sing Hickory Dickory Dock and I’m still going to have their voting on speed dial.

Up to people who they want in Eurovision, but I'm surprised to see multiple posters thinking Amnesty International have any credibility at all in 2025. That's long gone!

If it's not about music, wouldn't it be better just to stop the contest?

The world HAMAS created on October 7th.

It has always been a farce, it's a singing competition for lo-fi amateurs, people used to watch it out of derision.

But it was indeed created with the idea to gather people from all cultures, beyond politics and good taste. Respect to that.

That the current generation of fans has decided it has become a cultural milestone (?) and that the organisation must contravene its own principles of tolerance and inclusion to suit their sensitivities only reflects the sheer ignorance and arrogance of the mob.

The idea it has any political impact is also ridiculous and shows the delusion and self-aggrandisement. It would be funny if this hatred was not sad to watch.

O…k….?

If Israel goes ahead, then why not bring back Russia?...to fully reveal the farce it has become.

Israel started participating in Eurovision in 1973, before most of the people who protest against their involvement were born. And IMO their very first entry changed the competition for the better.

Because it's not about Europe! It's about an organisation known as the EBU which is about public service broadcasting and it's traditions. (Noting that public service broadcasting doesn't have the same level of significance and historical importance in North America broadcasting compared to Europe).

The European Broadcasting Union is an alliance of public service media organisations in countries within the European Broadcasting Area (EBA) or who are members of the Council of Europe. As of 2024, it is made up of 123 member organisations from 56 countries, and 31 associate members from a further 20 countries.

EBU members are public service media (PSM) broadcasters established by law but are non-partisan, independent, and run for the benefit of society as a whole.

EBU members come from as far north as Iceland and as far south as Algeria, from Portugal in the west to Azerbaijan in the east, and almost every nation from geographical Europe in between. Associate members from the United States include ABC, CBS, NBC, CPB, NPR, APM, and the only individual station, Chicago-based classical music radio WFMT.

Membership is for media organisations in countries within the European Broadcasting Area (EBA), as defined by the International Telecommunication Union, or who are members of the Council of Europe.

Members benefit from:

Access to content ranging from exclusive sports rights to exchanges for news, music, and children's programmes.
Representatives in Brussels, and in other international arenas, lobbying for PSM and ensuring the optimal legal and technical framework for broadcasters.
Opportunities for sharing, learning and collaborating through conferences, working groups, training, and dedicated advice and guidance.
A centre for learning and sharing new technology and innovation with a team of experts providing strategic advice and guidance.

It's an organisation that basically helps these broadcasters work together for certain things for mutual benefits.

I still don’t get why Israel is in Eurovision. (From a perspective of geography.)

I should add the points about how Israel approached the show since 2023

The tone was set in the audition process for the 2024 show with the very first contestant wearing army fatigues. For a contest about peace this was viewed as instantly provocative by many. It's not hard to see why this immediately stirred the pot.

The eventual winner then had to change the song name and lyrics from October Rain to something else but the lyrics were still obviously about the attack.

Then you have Israel's 2025 artist who started singing professionally in 2024 and had done a speech to the (UNHRC) in March 2024 about what she'd personally witnessed.

It's almost deliberately provocative for publicity and the way the Israeli government has been involved and to the degree it's openly been involved and has tried to suppress the free speech about the conflict is actually really alarming.

I believe that the Spanish broadcaster's withdrawal is in part about the repression of Spanish journalists by the Israel (and standing in solidarity with them) as much as it is about Gaza and the contest itself. There's also real concerns about the independence of the Israeli broadcaster. To be eligible for the contest under EBU rules the host broadcaster must have certain standards of support for free speech and support for democracy.

See this article published in Israel this week:
www.timesofisrael.com/the-next-threat-to-israel-at-eurovision-is-coming-from-inside-the-house/amp/

In order to maintain EBU membership, Israel must have a functioning, independent public broadcaster that provides both news and entertainment programming. And there’s the rub.

For a number of years, allies of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have been making efforts to shut down or gut Israel’s public broadcaster beyond recognition. Such a move would make Israel ineligible to be an EBU member and end its 53-year run in the Eurovision.

While the government has not been successful so far in that goal, it took a sharp step forward this week with the establishment of an ad hoc committee designed to push through media reform legislation by circumventing the permanent committee that has stymied it.

Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi – a member of Netanyahu’s ruling Likud party – has, since taking office in late 2022, made no secret of his desire to completely shut down Kan.

There's actually an argument to be made here - which actually is an important one, that in someways, Israel's participation in Eurovision is important to protect Israel's independent public broadcasting which is actually a large part of the Eurovision ideal and promotion of democracy. Kicking Israel would serve to jeopardise this.

Having said this there's a whole beef about the Israeli broadcaster still with comments about certain artists during the live broadcast if they were saying things that weren't on script about Israel. Which IS against EBU rules.

There are actually a shit load of layers to this and lots the EBU COULD and SHOULD have done to minimise some of these - which potentially would have allowed Israel to compete in a way where it hasn't spiralled in this manner and there's be more legitimate argument about 'this is just a song contest and we are about promoting peace and democracy' (which would have backed up their controversial decision to kick Russia and support Ukraine too).

Instead its like they've done pretty much everything possible that would make the situation worse in many ways instead.

I actually think the story to watch here, isn't who withdraws from the contest. It's about those reform of the broadcaster in Israel - and how much more happens before now and May with regards to that.

👏
Thank you so much, @RedToothBrush, for taking the time to write such an informative and intelligent post.

I knew you were a Eurovision regular and put in the hard yards on analysing and attending, and I’m not surprised you’re fucked off with it. I’m gutted it’s all come to this. I’ve watched it (or bits of it) since I was in primary school in the late 1969s/1970s, from B&W television onwards.

I wonder what the future will hold.

I also wonder if Australia is (or will be) ruing the day it signed up for this.

@RedToothBrush thank you for such in depth insights. Although I’m not generally a fan of EV, I’m (professionally) a sound engineer with good knowledge of the EBU, I had no idea about the political machinations behind this contest and what you write is pretty bloody grim tbh.

Do you really, honestly believe that the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians started on the 7th October? How very convenient.

OP the simplest way to register your protest is not to tune in. Or lobby the BBC but I'm not sure that the British public would support a boycott and the BBC should respect their views.

This is why they couldn't kick Israel out last year because technically they were within the rules as they stood.

Tbh after Malmö, they should have reviewed the rules. Malmö was a fucking car crash in how they handled everything to do with Joost Klein, who has a disability and had contracted breaks from filming in his contract as a result. His disqualification was an absolute travesty and a total stitch up because he wasn't happy how the organisers were failing to protect the other contestants from arro but Israel were getting gold carpet treatment. The security was a farce. They had none whilst the Israeli contest had a bigger security detail than the British PM (I've seen both first hand).

It eventually came out there was no case to answer after Joost had been put through police interview, lost his lifetime dream of appearing in the final and had been kicked off in disgrace.

Then several other contestants after the show said how bad it had been and the voting was a bloody travesty. But next to no changes were made for 2024 apart from a commitment to treat the contestants better. There was no attempt to deal with the issues with the Israeli delegation and their behaviour.

Then last year the farce which was the Israeli government sticking their oar in to stir it all up again was outrageous. I was getting adverts telling me to vote for them on my social media. I was like "Wtf, this is wrong. This isn't about a song contest. This is about straight up, state sponsored propaganda". And that made me actually really pissed off.

I went to Malmö. The atmosphere was terrible. It was like being stuck in the middle of someone else's domestic argument. I didn't want to go last year as a result of what happened and I think that was the right call.

For me this isnt about Israel v Palestine as such. This is about the organisers failing to deal with the problem of outrageous behaviour by the Israelis who have used the song contest as a propaganda machine for two years and how this has been at the expense of many of the other participants.

The EBU still hasn't really grasped this is the issue in many respects.

It's got fuck all to with wanting to support Palestine for many Eurovision fans and everything to do with poor management of the song contest and how it's been exploited by the Israeli government.

They could have just entered a song, but it's really not been the Israeli agenda for the last couple of years. That's my beef. If they wanted to enter a song and just be part of things then it wouldnt have been anywhere near the same issues in the ways they have transpired.

This should never have got to this point.

Last year they got very very close to complete disaster. Had Israel won the contest, it would have killed the competition stone dead.

The EBU clearly hasn't been able to attract other sponsors either. I believe the deal with Moroccanoil was due to end in 2024. So naturally, extending it to 2025 was really bloody smart. And then they did the same again this year! (So two rolling extra years rather than being tied by a contract they couldn't get out of - then they signed another deal for another year with this shit show hanging over it).

One of the problems is other sponsors won't want to touch it because of Israel's participation too.

So the EBU have made a pile of rods for their own back throughout when they could have made alternative decisions.

The decision of a couple of the countries to withdraw (particularly the Netherlands) needs to be seen through this lens rather than purely through the lens of supporting Palestine for these reasons too.

It's not necessarily about support for Gaza. It's about the EBU allowing Israel to throw it's weight around and the Israeli government using Eurovision to push it's agenda rather than Israel just participating in a non-political way which it could have done. And the EBU has left itself vulnerable to this when it didn't need to through some of the commercial decisions it's made. It's fucked in the head. I just can't fathom the series of decisions that have lead us here.

I fail to see how it will resolve itself at this year's contest if I'm honest.

Bloody hell, @RedToothBrush, that’s really significant and not in a good way.

Belgium are taking part.