A number of international locations have demanded Israel be excluded on account of its actions in Gaza, threatening to drop out of the competitors.
Revealed On 26 Sep 2025
Eurovision Music Contest members will vote on Israel’s participation within the 2026 competitors in November.
The European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which oversees the occasion, confirmed the plan on Friday. Worldwide calls for for Israel to be excluded from the competition as a result of nation’s actions in Gaza have been rising.
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The board of the EBU, an umbrella organisation for public broadcasters that runs the occasion, has despatched a letter to members indicating that the vote will happen at a rare common assembly held on-line in early November, a spokesperson stated.
The vote will likely be on whether or not Kan, the Israeli public broadcaster and member of the EBU, will take part, the spokesperson stated. An “absolute majority” can be required for an exclusion to move, he stated.
International locations together with Eire, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Spain have demanded that the EBU exclude Israel, citing as a precedent its resolution to take away Russia from the present following its invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Through the previous two editions of the competitors, the occasion has been drawn into the controversy over Israel’s devastating struggle in Gaza, which has now killed greater than 65,000 folks.
Professional-Palestinian activists protested in Malmo, Sweden, in 2024 and in Basel, Switzerland in Could over Israel’s participation within the contest.
In September, a United Nations Fee of Inquiry concluded that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza.
Final week, Spain threatened to boycott the competition – the world’s largest stay televised music occasion that takes place in Could – if Israel takes half. Eire, Slovenia, Iceland and the Netherlands have made comparable threats.
Germany and Austria have backed Israel’s participation.
Different international locations, akin to Belgium, Sweden, and Finland, are additionally contemplating a boycott and have till December to resolve.
Except for Russia, the EBU beforehand booted former Yugoslavia from the competitors on account of UN sanctions over the Balkan wars within the Nineteen Nineties, and Belarus in 2021 over its crackdown on media freedoms.
Kan, the Israeli broadcaster, wrote on Thursday on social media that it hoped the competition “will proceed to uphold its cultural and non-political id”.
