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

[Everexpanding]

In a statement released on Thursday afternoon, the Dutch broadcaster Avrotros said it would also withdraw from next year’s contest. “After weighing all perspectives, Avrotros concludes that, under the current circumstances, participation cannot be reconciled with the public values that are fundamental to our organisation.”

The Slovenian national broadcaster, RTVSLO – the first to threaten a boycott this summer – said participation “would conflict with its values of peace, equality and respect”.

Spain’s culture minister, Ernest Urtasun, backed the decision, adding: “You can’t whitewash Israel given the genocide in Gaza. Culture should be on the side of peace and justice. I’m proud of an RTVE that puts human rights before any economic interest

RTÉ feels that Ireland’s participation remains unconscionable given the appalling loss of lives in Gaza and the humanitarian crisis there which continues to put the lives of so many civilians at risk,” the broadcaster said in a statement.

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2025/dec/04/ireland-spain-and-the-netherlands-to-boycott-eurovision-2026-as-israel-cleared-to-compete

What was your motivation @Twiglets1 for mentioning the Australian attack and no "sympathy expressed" by me in this post about Eurovision honestly?

Ofc Israel is going to make sure they win. NB runs a very smooth propaganda machine.

Yup, the competition was seemingly brought into disrepute last year due to voting irregularities so much so that the EBU had to introduce new rules:

"The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) has announced significant voting changes for the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 to enhance transparency and limit external influence. These new rules come after controversies surrounding public voting patterns in recent years.
Key Changes for 2026

• Juries Return to Semi-Finals: Professional juries will be reintroduced in the Semi-Finals, splitting the vote evenly between juries and the audience, aligning with the Grand Final format.
• Expanded & Diverse Juries: National juries will now have seven members, including a broader mix of music professionals and at least two members aged 18-25 to better represent younger perspectives.
• Reduced Audience Votes: The maximum number of votes per person per payment method will be reduced from 20 to 10.
• Clearer Rules on Promotion: The Code of Conduct will be strengthened to prevent "disproportionate promotion campaigns" funded by external parties, aiming to protect the contest from undue influence.
• Enhanced Technical Safeguards: The EBU will improve systems to detect and prevent fraudulent or coordinated voting and monitor suspicious activity.

These updates are designed to balance expert musical judgment with public preference and maintain the contest's neutrality and integrity. Further details are available on the official Eurovision Song Contest website. "

Luckily the Israeli government has just voted to increase it's public diplomacy budget by 500% from $150 million to $750 million.

https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/politics-and-diplomacy/article-879369

Yeah it's pretty surprising they didn't last year, the Israeli government in the middle of a war managed to find the time and money to run 84 advertisements begging people to vote up to 20 times for a contestant in a singing contest. The Eurovision require broadcasters to prevent government interference and prohibit any political instrumentalization of the contest but I guess desperate times call for desperate measures as far as the Israeli government is concerned and they aren't exactly a government that is concerned about rules or morals. It's not about politics though like some posters here assure us, definitely not about politics it's all about the singing and the dancing💃

The rules have been changed for next year to make it harder for Israel to win the public vote. Though of course there are no rules in the world that could make some people admit that Israel has a lot of public support.

If Israel do well the rules must need changing amIright? And if they still do well … maybe the rules will need changing again 🤷🏼‍♀️

This!

The Eurovision require broadcasters to prevent government interference and prohibit any political instrumentalization of the contest.

You can ignore the fact that Israel have been using this contest for political reasons against the rules if you like, you can 'wah, wah people just don't like Israel if you like' but the facts remain. Their delegation acted disgracefully last year and they allowed government interference against the rules. Some broadcasters don't want to be a part of that dog and pony show. The broadcasters who opted out are happy with their decision. The broadcasters who stayed in are presumably happy to take part. That's all there is to it really.

None of you will acknowledge that the Israel contestant was bullied last year but that’s ok. I wouldn’t expect anything else.

I just hope Ireland and the other 4 countries can stay out of Eurovision next year and not cause trouble seeing as they aren’t participating.

Yet if we are sticking to facts it was the Israeli delegation causing trouble towards Ireland. Israel received a formal warning that specifically mentioned their behaviour towards Ireland, Ireland received no warning. Hopefully Israel can behave this time around and curb their discriminatory comments, intrusive, offensive and provocative behavior as per their formal warning.

Just because they have been name checked in this post the fact is there was absolutely no suggestion the Irish delegation were bullying Raphael or "causing trouble" in 2025.

But she was bullied which you appeared to question in an earlier post. Do you accept that she was bullied?

If we’re sticking to facts the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) stated explicitly that it found no evidence of vote tampering.

Despite this a recent Irish Times editorial nonetheless referred to “alleged vote tampering” on behalf of Israel in recent contests”.

I'm not sure how that is relevant to my comment tbh or are you saying that one article referring to the alleged vote tampering and it was alleged that Israel tampered with votes is 'causing trouble'? If you think that that is causing trouble you must think discriminatory comments, intrusive, offensive and provocative behavior are really appalling? Funny how your posts have all omitted that though, they don't suit the wah, wah, everyone was picking on Israel narrative you are going for.

I’m saying there is a certain agenda which Israel is up against at Eurovision with their contestant being bullied and them being accused of vote tampering “alleged” according to the Irish Times though denied by the EBU investigation.

In this context I’m glad those particular 5 countries have taken themselves out of the competition seeing as they appear to be the ones with the strongest anti Israel feelings. I’m sure most people just want a fun competition. Changes to the public voting system have been made as people felt Israel had an unfair advantage after they did so well last year. It will be interesting to see how they fare next year and personally I wish their contestant and all the contestants all the best in having a good competition in 2026.

@Twiglets1 Multiple countries complained of voting irregularities and the fact that the rules have been changed now does make it seem that the system was open to abuse. Not sure why you’re pinning all this on an Irish Times article?

@CrossChecking why is it a foregone conclusion that Israel will win? They didn't win last year.

Yes, I think most people do want a fun competition which is why they were so appalled by the Israeli government interference and the discriminatory comments, intrusive, offensive and provocative behavior from the Israeli delegation. It's not really conducive to a 'fun time'. Hopefully Israel will heed their formal warning and the EBU will be on the ball🤞

I'm not pinning all this on an Irish Times article. I'm pointing out that they are still referring to "alleged vote rigging" months after the EBU said they found no evidence of this.

If the system was open to abuse in other ways then that's the fault of the system which was in place during the 2025 competition and before. The voting system has been changed for 2026 yet @CrossChecking still seems to think that it's a foregone conclusion that Israel will win.

I don't know about that but I expect they will do very well.

No you didn't explain it very logically considering last year "every pro Israel head out there" as you so charmingly put it could have voted x20 for them yet they still didn't win.

I still don’t understand why they don’t allow people to have just one vote, instead of 20 and now 10?
They ‘encourage’ people to spread their votes, but it seems obvious the current system can still be abused.

I guess they make money from every vote cast…

I don't really understand that either.

20 votes did seem a very high number of votes, 10 seems better to me but I don't really understand why it wasn't always 10 or even 5.

I'm comparing it to other competitions (dare I say it like Big Brother) where you get 5 votes.

Must be a money thing?

Quite likely.

Do you pay to vote on Eurovision?

You don't on Big Brother if you vote via the app and that's the only competition I normally bother voting on.

I’ve never voted but I think you do, though the amount varies by country. At least that’s what google has told me in the 30 seconds I just spent looking 😂