Israel out of Eurovision! The Boycott call grows louder
JVL introduction
The Eurovision Song Contest is hailed as a celebration of European culture and a force for unity. But the contest is currently been torn apart by conflict over Israel’s participation.
As leading BDS activist Samir Eskanda explains in the discussion with Owen Jones embedded in this post, outrage against Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people is generating a popular boycott movement among some of Eurovision’s biggest fans. A number of national broadcasters have reflected the mood by pulling out, but in every country which is taking part, there will be huge protests and massive pressure on participants to withdraw.
The BBC reported on Wednesday that Iceland had become the fifth country to pull out of Eurovision 2026 after Israel’s participation in the competition was officially confirmed last week.
Iceland followed Spain, Ireland, Slovenia and the Netherlands in withdrawing from what had been billed as a celebratory 70th anniversary event. It is scheduled to take place in Vienna, Austria in May with contestants from around 35 countries including Israel. But, as Eskanda explains in the video interview below, Israel’s participation is making a mockery of Eurovision’s slogan, “United by Music”, not only because of the genocide in Gaza but also because of evidence of Israeli government interference in the public vote at this year’s event.
Unsurprisingly, much media commentary has platformed pundits arguing that events like Eurovision are politics-free zones where people can enjoy the simple of pleasure of sharing music. BBC Radio 4 even wheeled out a previous Israeli winner of the contest to say, repeatedly on the Today programme, that there was no genocide in Gaza and boycotting Israel was antisemitic. Such assertions are increasingly regarded with the contempt they deserve. According to an Irish participant in a roundtable discussion on TRT World, 79 percent of the population in the Irish Republic want Israel out of the contest.
Like FIFA and UEFA in football, the European Broadcasting Union is guilty of gross hypocrisy in continuing to welcome Israeli participation while Russia was banned from Eurovision immediately after its invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Eurovision in crisis
Owen Jones interviews Samir Eskanda about the growing boycott movement.
How did Israel, which can only be described as a Middle Eastern state, ever get to be in the Eurovision Song Contest in the first place. Wasn’t the establishment of Israel meant to provide Jews with a place to live which wasn’t Europe? This alone has always made the ESC political, whatever claims it has made for itself.
I’ve been saying this for decades — Israel is not a European country, is it? Why not set up – or join – a song contest for Asia.
Israel Also competes in football’s European Cup. How come?