4 countries to boycott Eurovision due to Israel’s continued inclusion

Ha ha that comes across as line out of a Terminator movie.

But of course you'd say that but on the evidence of this thread, its "Israel can do no wrong, ever"

Unless we are clear as to what is wrong or right, when can we clear that laws have been broken?
It’s alright if you are not the victim though? I guess some would be happy to leave the Palestinians to muddle along.

I agree. But my point is that we should not only care when the victims are European.

Many were welcomed and continue to be welcome but it undoubtedly put a strain on resources and logistics and was deeply traumatic for the refugees and the hosts were party to that and saw first hand how the refugees would rather be at home. A desire to sanction Rusia was an expression of empathy not a reaction to 'inconvenience' in my experience.

Thanks @Hortesne this is how I feel - it is better, if possible, to keep everyone around the table and to avoid pushing people into taking moral stances where it’s avoidable.

The current way of seeing the world is very black and white, ‘right/wrong side of history’ which I think is a great mistake and pushes people to ever more entrenched viewpoints.

Yes and it has changed the ambit/ethos of Eurovision. Maybe you're one of those people who like that. I am not. I feel uneasy with any broad brush decision taken by a subset of actors (in this case the EBU committee) on behalf of a wider group and the implications of collusion/agreement that goes with it. I prefer people to muddle along rather than be required to take moral stances on issues that aren't actually questions of morality at all.

I was referring to your point of Ukrainians coming to live in other European families as part of your explanation why Europe is supporting boycott of Russia.. I will be more careful to be sure explicit to for you.

There may be a ceasefire ‘on paper’ but it hasn’t stopped the IDF and Netanyahu stop killing Palestinians which I’m guessing you haven’t missed in the news

From
The Guardian
‘ The term ceasefire ‘risks creating a dangerous illusion life is returning to normal’ for Palestinians squeezed into the remaining 42% of their land behind Israel’s ‘yellow line’
Sat 6 Dec 2025 06.00 GMT
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When Jumaa and Fadi Abu Assi went to look for firewood their parents thought they would be safe. They were just young boys, aged nine and 10 and, after all, a ceasefire had been declared in Gaza.
Their mother, Hala Abu Assi, was making tea in the family’s tent in Khan Younis when she heard an explosion, a missile fired by an Israeli drone. She ran to the scene – but it was too late.

Since the US-brokered ceasefire announced on 10 October, Israeli forces have killed more than 360 Palestinians in Gaza; according to a UN official, at least 70 are children – like Jumaa and Fadi.
View image in fullscreen
A mourner holds up a phone picturing Jumaa and Fadi Abu Assi at the boys’ funeral on 29 November. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

They were killed, their mother said, at “a time when bloodshed was supposed to stop”.
“After the ceasefire was announced, I felt a bit of safety and believed that nothing would harm my children any more,” Abu Assi said. “But fate had another plan.”
She is focused now on keeping her two surviving daughters alive. “I still hear explosions and gunfire,” she said. “I do not feel that the war has ended.”

So
Not really a ceasefire then
and as such I applaud all those who sanction or/and boycott Israel

There is a ceasefire in Israel/Gaza there is nothing close to one in Ukraine.

And now they do. Broadcasters presumably have always had the freedom to associate or otherwise. So it's no surprise that, at a certain point, concerned about the treatment of their colleagues internationally, they use that freedom.

Let’s hope they do this on Israel as they continue to kill Palestinians

It’s very overdue

@Lunalara just one eg of something further that could be done https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/nov/27/west-is-missing-obscure-sanctions-that-could-set-back-russias-war-machine

You need to spend a bit more time on google Im afraid.

They never previously had any place in Eurovision.

I don't see this as problematic. Vetos, sanctions and boycotts have their place, and arrangements change over time. I'm not aware of movements to sanction any state but Russia and Israel in this way, but obviously broadcasters are free to raise other cases if they see fit. They are funding the enterprise, after all.

There was another thread on it too
Considering these remarks were considered acceptable by mumsnet this thread isn’t as bad as the deleted one

The worst of the posts deleted but you get the gist from the shocked comments

So no need to trawl through two years worth of threads

It has been awful at times. Especially in the first few months. Little Adam was executed in November 2023, it was like watching a pack of rabid animals on that thread, the sheer hatred people had for Palestinians including children was so, so clear. Like I said it was a turning point for me because I just had no idea. I was deleting old emails a while back and came across one from mumsnet, it was from a thread I had reported. The premise of the thread was that people in the UK don't realise that Palestinian children aren't like their children so when they see a child like Adam being killed they shouldn't feel the same way they would about a British child being killed. The thread was deleted but even the fact that someone thought that mumsnet was a safe place to post that racist bilge says a lot about how mumsnet was at the time.

People can deny it but it happened and it taught me a lot about this conflict and the treatment of Palestinians of the years and I won't ever forget it.

What I mean is that it was previously always the case that whatever was going on where you lived, if your nationality made you eligible, if you could physically and legally get to Eurovision, and if your country was recognised as a country, you could take part.

That changed with the move to exclude Russia and now the precedent has been set you've got every Tom Dick and Harry wanting to veto whoever they don't agree with.

We live in the present, and we deal with the problems of the present. Why would we wait ask, did my grandparents take equivalent action a few decades back?

Whataboutery can just be an excuse to try to sling mud or to distract from current problems. Israeli atrocities are a current problem.

@belleager

All of the phenomenona you mention there are historic and widespread across Europe

Yes and no one ever got banned for them before.

Hrm I wouldn't say that Russia/Ukraine conflict was as simple as one peaceful unblemished nation being invaded by big mad Putin. Russia initially moved into Donbas in 2014 following Euromaiden. Euromaiden was a happening that at least involved outside NATO aligned actors, and ethnic Russians on the border were certainly under threat at that time, not least from the neo nazi Ukrainian brigade subsequently taken onto regular Ukraine army payroll. When NATO continued to supply "training" in the area, and Ukraine negotiated for more and closer ties with NATO and EU during this time of conflict, this was obviously a threat to Russia and it had to act to protect its border. I still think it instructive that neither Ukraine nor Russia actually declared war - the tipping point where war was eventually determined was called by the US/NATO who were already there, and shortly after the UK. It's a murky chapter, for sure.

It shows bias that Israel isn’t excluded because the contest “isn’t political”, when they have made very clear political stances against Russia. The wars being different and having different origins doesn’t change this statement.

I am not saying they shouldn’t. I am saying that it’s not antisemitic to ban Israel in the same way that it isn’t Russophobic to ban Russia. My point above was to argue that there are a lot of sanctions against Russia.

Let’s see here:

Russia is excluded from pretty much every competition, even in cases when they didn’t cheat. This includes a cat competition.

Russians, even those who risked 10 year prison sentences to protest, had to face being locked in the country despite doing everything in their power to protest. A lot of people here won’t even protest against Israel when there are no such consequences.

Russians can’t access many products for themselves, including video games, films etc (which they have to pirate). Not the worst thing on this list by a landslide, but a lot of people in this country would struggle without these comforts.

Russia is banned from the international banking system.

Cultural events that have literally nothing to do with the current war, including ballet, have not been allowed if the participants are Russian/companies are Russian.

I could go on. I don’t know what else we could do besides bombing them or starving them.