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 on earth are you talking about?

AFD is a worrying example of how these things can gather pace. It was initially Eurosceptic and actually I think with good reason - Germany's economy did take a blow from the way the Euro was introduced, in favour of countries that couldn't get a hold of their own internal affairs. But AFD were dismissed as being too inward looking and nationalistic - again, totally get why citizens born into such a complicated legacy would be wary of this. But in failing to address what were at the time fairly moderate concerns Merkel and others inadvertently fomented discontent and made space for a more radical message to insert itself ... and now they are definitely and unapologetically far right, and riding high in the polls.

The founder left the party years ago and spends his time talking to anyone who will listen about the dangers of disaffection and how he has seen his erstwhile organisation transform into a quasi-fascist and terrifyingly popular legion.

Yes the AfD are truly scary unlike people who oppose genocide, who are generally not far right and not anti semites

If British people want to lobby for the BBC to boycott Eurovision based on human rights issues or atrocities several decades ago in Spain, Ireland or anywhere else, I'm sure they are welcome to do so.

But people rarely feel the same urgency about dealing with historical issues because they'll just be condemning, not trying to bring pressure for change. They'll also, very often, be sitting in glass houses throwing stones. So I doubt you'll get much public support for it.

I don't want anyone anywhere to lobby to boycott Eurovision. Because it's a singing show, it's supposed to be fun, and actually if we're talking about questionable actors we'd need to remove pretty much everyone in it.

Noones suggesting such a thing. Good grief.

That's right, and that's the point. No one's suggesting such a thing because dredging up past offences by countries that are taking action now, as some posters have done on this thread, is clearly a false equivalent and an attempted distraction.

No, you are misunderstanding the points being made.

That's certainly possible - it was hard to see their relevance. And of course I'm aware that most posters, whatever their position, weren't adopting this angle.

Maybe Iceland will boycott too

”Icelandic public broadcaster RUV said its board will make a decision on Wednesday on whether to participate in the next Eurovision, which will be held in Vienna in May.”

Britain for example, true history being taught, would dredge up a lot of historical blood on their hands but lets not talk about that.

Not a current genocide though

People can talk about Britain's historical blood on their hands all they want.

As long as British people that are innocent of any of that wrongdoing are not being excluded from events.

No comment on AfD @Twiglets1 surely with your concern re anti semitism you are paying attention

Or do you only raise concerns re anti semitism when addressing posters criticising a genocide?

It’s not a genocide and saying it is over and over again doesn’t make it true.

The UN, Amnesty and numerous other Human Rights NGOs would disagree, do you know more than these organisations ?

Tell us how you are qualified to tell all the international organisations that have ruled that this is a genocide that they are wrong? What information do you think you have access to that they don’t?

Thank you for your sneering tone. I wouldn't put blind faith in any of those organisations, no. They have their own political biases. As an unrelated example, Amnesty don't believe women should have single sex spaces.

I would be more inclined to say it was genocide if the UK government did, but they haven't.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/sep/09/uk-not-concluded-israel-committing-genocide-in-gaza-lammy-says

Why do you think David Lammy is qualified to say whether it’s a genocide or not? Is he a genocide scholar? Is he more qualified than Raz Segal, an associate professor of Holocaust and Genocide studies and an Israeli citizen who has explicitly argued that Israel’s actions in Gaza constitute a textbook case of genocide? Thought not.

You can start a Germany bashing thread on another board if they are a new target for your condemnation.

Most countries unfortunately have extremist groups but that’s not the focus of this thread.

Plenty of other 'genocide scholars' and other experts say it isnt. You can play tit for tat all day if you want to but on the basis of the evidence we have available its a perfectly legitimate, evidence-based view that it isnt. So picking on individual posters and saying tbey don't know more than a person with the opposing view that you have selected is pointless.

And what qualifies David Lammy is that he was Foereign Secretary with a vast number of experts to call on and a mountain of data and intelligence that you don't have access to.

So why haven't Ireland withdrawn from the football world cup qualifiers? They are so two faced it's unreal!

Why is it pointless? That person is well qualified in genocide studies. David Lammy is not. Yet the pp has stated that they don’t believe it to be a genocide because David Lammy said so. Seems a bit sheep like to me.