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

One person’s ethical problem is another’s antisemitic virtue-signalling.

Spain only let Jews back into the country just over 150 years ago.

I’m as entitled to my opinion about engagement with ethical problems and historical wrongdoing as the next poster.

Actually Spain acted well in 2015, allowing descendants of Sephardic Jews expelled during the inquisition to fast track Spanish citizenship.

That’s not an anti-Semitic move at all but rather one of reparations.

And look what they have come back to! No wonder Israel is so important to Jews worldwide.

If the bar is 150years and how countries have treated Jews since, its going to be a very meagre field for EV.

I’m aware of that. I wonder how those descendants feel today.

If we were to summon all of our British, Irish, Spanish, Israeli etc forefathers of 150 years past to the discussion, of course we'd find many beliefs and attitudes of theirs unpalatable (as they would ours). It is hard to see how that has any bearing on the moral authority of their broadcasters in this instance.

Probably the same as the descendants of the Palestinian diaspora will feel in 500 years time?

It’s hard to find a country that hasn’t acted terribly in the past. But it’s the ones that are acting badly now that need to be the focus for BDS.

Possibly the broadcasters don’t have as much moral authority as posters praising the Eurovision boycotters would like us to think?

In general I don’t think sifting through past wrongs is all that helpful. I just think if I was a country which after expelling Jews (which many countries did including England) only let them back in 150 years ago I’d probably be a bit circumspect about Israel.

I'm not praising anyone, least of all broadcasters, Israel shouldn't be in the competition, thats supported by 82% of the UK.

If for no other reason then their inclusion will wreck it for other singers, viewers and fans.

I really can't take this 150 year business seriously. It's not even the same state, never mind constitution, political parties etc. Nobody who was alive before Jews were legally readmitted to Spain has walked the earth this century.

I'm resisting the very obvious comparisons with every other nation and their conduct and interventions, because, as I said, historical top trumps gets us nowhere.

Spanish football fans were singing racist chants at a French player earlier this year. The racism certainly isn’t confined to the past!

Ah.....the default setting of the pro-Israeli lobby-all criticism of Israel means you are antisemitic. Shame on you! Well done Slovenia, The Netherlands, Spain and Ireland. Showing a backbone regardless of the consequences and tut-tutting from certain quarters.

Except noone here regards all criticism of Israel as antisemitic. Only antisemitic criticism of Israel.

Israel has been in the competition since 1973. Surely you can see that the present boycott cannot be due to anti-semitism?

You literally do it all the time. All the time.

Nor in any country, unfortunately. Hope Spain's efforts to deal with this are sustained and effective. But I wouldn't infer that their broadcasters boycotting of the Eurovision is in any way racist.

I don’t think it’s helpful either, as I’ve said more than once. Just giving my perspective on what I think of Spain being held up as some kind of ethical exemplar.

Why?

Give me an example

I don't think anyone is doing this, holding Spain up as an ethical exemplar. Some posters are simply approving this particular decision by Spain's broadcaster.

I don't know about the others, but Spain's extreme left government are trying to smoke-screen the fact that they have corruption cases coming out of their ears. Hoping Palestine will distract everyone from the fact that Pedro Sanchez has 3 ministers in jail already

Source : Pallywood and "trust me bro"

You've been watching too much Pallywood

No, but perhaps those indicating Spain is more morally superior than other nations might like to take a minute and think. Racism isn’t over anywhere, not by a long chalk. But Spanish football fans are notorious for it - far worse than (for example) UK, French, German fans. So maybe, just maybe, we can stop pretending Spain is better than others. And we can certainly stop pretending Spain’s history of racism is totally in the past.

But nobody is claiming or pretending these things.

The pattern in this discussion is:

People approve an action by Spanish, Irish, Dutch and Slovenian broadcasters.

Other people leap in to remind us that these countries have their problems, scandals, imperfections, dark histories etc, with particular reference to racism and anti-Semitism.

If the argument isn't that this means the action is racist or anti-Semitic, good. But why bother with the rest of it? Nobody is setting these countries up as moral giants, so unless you're trying to discredit the broadcasters and their actions, what's your point?