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

No idea what you're talking about.

Back to the history books then eh??

We Irish are good at waiting before a pounce. We once waited 800 years for something in fact ;)

Yes and there is a reparations scheme to acknowledge the trauma and mistreatment of the women and babies in these institutions. A little bit different from Israel refusing to even acknowledge that killing 20000 children and starving a civillian population is wrong.

Yes the effect of the boycott at the time was certainly exaggerated. It was as much a reflection of SA's situation as the driver for it. However morally virtous it made us feel at the time.

Maybe Ireland should have been kicked out of Eurovision during the 60s and 70s when it was putting babies in sewers. Of course we'd have to have known about it but imagine - a world without Dana! All kinds of everything, indeed.

Still no idea. If you have a point, why not just make it?

Yes, I remember the Dunnes Stores workers standing outside in the cold and rain as I was a student in Dublin at the time. I delighted we are standing up to genocide.

Aaah so disagreeing with Israel murdering innocent kids, blowing the limbs off other kids, targeting civilians trying to shelter in flimsy tents and burning them to death, is just racist?
You got that folks? We must celebrate Israel killing over 60,000 civilians or we are all racists!

It certainly does.

Nice try.

How about FW DeKlrek?

.

Absolutely

Tell all those grieving mothers that no one gives a shit about them and their dead children really, we just want to be racist.

What about him? Please make your point or Im not botherimg engagimg with you any further.

I mean empty vessels make the most noise.

Hopefully this is the beginning of the end of the Eurovision nonsense.

This. Proud to be Irish

Any thing that finishes off that tired old third rate camp weirdo fest is fine by me - don't really care which side causes it

Really low trying to use the murder of innocent children to score points in a discussion.
Im disgusted at you @SharonEllis.

It’s completely valid to debate Spain’s current choices, but linking them to a time when the country lived under a dictatorship imposed in a brutally harsh way doesn’t really make sense.

Spain’s history is indeed complex, as with many countries, but using everything from the Inquisition to the dictatorship is quite a stretch. And implying that Spaniards somehow chose Franco’s fascism suggests a rather loose grasp of what actually happened. It’s a serious period of suffering, not a footnote to score a point with.

Oh please. We haven't had a sniff at winning year!

But every single aspect, every moment of Israel's history is fair game for point scoring, isn't it?

It’s a serious period of suffering, not a footnote to score a point with.

But this is all point scoring, all of this "your country is evil, that country over there is good" type of talk. Quite apart from bringing into sharp relief the glass houses that all the stone throwers (like eg Spain, Ireland) are living in, it doesn't make sense to say that a country is 'good' or 'bad'. Hell, it doesn't make sense to say a person is 'good' or 'bad' - we are all a mix of the two - so how can you say it about a country? A country isn't supposed to be a barometer of morality, that's not a country's job.