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submitted 2 months ago by Babalugats@feddit.uk to c/europe@feddit.org

Ireland, Spain, the Netherlands and Slovenia will boycott next year's Eurovision Song Contest, after Israel was allowed to compete.

They were among a number of countries who had called for Israel to be excluded over the humanitarian toll of the war in Gaza, and accusations of unfair voting practices.

Despite calls for a vote on Israel's participation, members instead approved a new set of rules intended to protect the integrity of the contest.

Ireland's national broadcaster RTE said it felt that its "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."

In a statement, Dutch broadcaster Avrotros said that "participation under the current circumstances is incompatible with the public values ​​that are essential to us".

Spanish broadcaster RTVE added: "The board of directors of RTVE agreed last September that Spain would withdraw from Eurovision if Israel was part of it."

"This withdrawal also means that RTVE will not broadcast the Eurovision 2026 final... nor the preliminary semi-finals."

Continue reading here - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cde6d8wyp79o

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[-] gustofwind@lemmy.world 101 points 2 months ago

If only Israelis had the capacity to feel shame

[-] CaptObvious@literature.cafe 19 points 2 months ago

I understand that about half do. Unfortunately, like the US, they aren’t the half that count

[-] pulsewidth@lemmy.world 26 points 2 months ago

82% of them are happy to expel all Gaza's Palestinian residents, that doesn't sound like people who experience shame for their governmeng killing ~40k civilian women and children over the last few years.

A further 56% favour expelling all Israeli citizens with Palestinian bloodlines and a lovely 47%..

agreed that "when conquering an enemy city, the Israel Defense Forces should act as the Israelites did in Jericho under Joshua's command – killing all its inhabitants." Sixty-five percent said they believed in the existence of a modern-day incarnation of Amalek, the Israelite biblical enemy whom God commanded to wipe out in Deuteronomy 25:19. Among those believers, 93 percent said the commandment to erase Amalek's memory remains relevant today.

https://archive.is/nNzq4

I'm not seeing much conscience or shame in those numbers.

[-] CaptObvious@literature.cafe 8 points 2 months ago

I’d like to know how Israelis as a whole respond to these questions, since this sounds like it surveyed only religious conservatives.

[-] GraveyardOrbit@lemmy.zip 5 points 2 months ago

The nation was founded by and for religious extremists

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[-] gustofwind@lemmy.world 16 points 2 months ago

My understanding is it’s way less than half

[-] cosmicrookie@lemmy.world 60 points 2 months ago

They made a choice. Let's see how they handle the consequences

[-] clay_pidgin@sh.itjust.works 36 points 2 months ago

What consequences? That they won't win this year either?

Oh, you mean the EBU probably. One of the Big 5 leaving is really something. I can't imagine Spain leaving the EBU itself though.

[-] BakerBagel@midwest.social 35 points 2 months ago

Iceland, Belgium, and Portugal are likely to leave as well, with the Polish Culture minister calling for a boycott if Israel participates a few months ago. The more countries that drop, the more expensive it will be to participate for the remaining countries as well.

[-] huppakee@piefed.social 7 points 2 months ago

the more expensive it will be to participate for the remaining countries as well.

I don't think the boycotting countries will leave the EBU or stop paying for their membership.

[-] BakerBagel@midwest.social 5 points 2 months ago

No, but the participants still have to pay a lot towards the show. They don't just get to piggy back off of the host amd Big 5. There are participation fees that cover the EBU expenses. Those have to be covered in by the participation fees

[-] ohulancutash@feddit.uk 8 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

The point of ESC is to get around 9 hours of content for much cheaper than broadcasters can normally do.

So for example, at the highest end of participation in the big 5, the BBC pays a fee of £300,000, and about the same again for production costs such as delegation hotels. That’s about the price of 2 hours’ worth of EastEnders. Per hour, its the cost of a mid-range game show.

In total, the fees reach around £5 million. The host nation’s broadcaster is then on the hook for the rest of the cost, which is usually an additional £8-18m.

[-] Successful_Try543@feddit.org 17 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

One of the Big Five (they are the largest financial contributors) leaving is, financially, indeed something.
As the ESC is only one part of the EBU (yet the most prominent one for the public) beside sharing of media, news and technical collaboration, leaving the EBU completely over the israeli participation at the ESC would give that occassion way too much relevance.

[-] pupbiru@aussie.zone 5 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

leaving the EBU completely over the israeli participation at the ESC would give that occassion way too much relevance.

whilst i agree, i think it’s also important to acknowledge that non-participation in ESC isn’t about non-participation in ESC… it’s not like they’re not participating because they don’t like israel’s songs; it’s about a principal. if the decision was made about israel to do with ESC it says something about the EBUs values and how it’s being run

non-participation isn’t meant as a punishment, and it’s not even really about ESC: it’s meant to be a statement to the EBU as a whole: we don’t support this and won’t support anyone who does

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[-] theacharnian@lemmy.ca 48 points 2 months ago

The fact that this was up for debate, the fact that there are countries that choose to boycott as a result, the fact that this is news: these are wins people. The cracks have formed and it's starting to buckle. It is now normal and mainstream to talk about boycotting the genocidal apartheid Israeli regime. Even the German apartheid-apoligist institutions are forced to say they respect the decisions of non-apologist ones. Don't take this as reason for cynicism and disappointment, it's quite the opposite! Apartheid South Africa didn't get boycotted, isolated and forced to recon with its crimes all at once, it was a process. KEEP PUSHING!

[-] biofaust@lemmy.world 40 points 2 months ago

The main sponsor of the show, Moroccanoil, is an Israeli company. This was obvious.

[-] QuoVadisHomines@sh.itjust.works 20 points 2 months ago

Moroccan Oil is an Israeli company?

[-] mirshafie@europe.pub 18 points 2 months ago

Yeah they make hair products.

rip Eurovision

1956-2026

good run.

[-] huppakee@piefed.social 12 points 2 months ago

Maybe not, the Olympics survived a genocide so maybe Eurovision will get through this somehow

[-] QuoVadisHomines@sh.itjust.works 11 points 2 months ago

Several genocides in fact

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[-] D_C@sh.itjust.works 27 points 2 months ago

The boycotting countries should stay in and sing about how israeli's are genocidal murderers.

[-] ohulancutash@feddit.uk 5 points 2 months ago

Political songs are not allowed

[-] Amir@lemmy.ml 18 points 2 months ago

Except for all those times when Israel made songs about heroically blowing up children

[-] Emopunker@feddit.org 5 points 2 months ago

Can you name any examples of that?

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[-] Jollyllama@lemmy.world 22 points 2 months ago

I hope more broadcasters drop out. Either it'll force their hand to expel all genocidal nations or make Eurovision a joke and viewership crashes.

[-] 000@lemmy.dbzer0.com 18 points 2 months ago

Ireland, Netherlands, Spain, and Slovenia should make their own Eurovision

[-] sdfric88@lemmy.sdf.org 18 points 2 months ago

With hookers, and blackjack!

[-] Mgineer@lemmy.ml 9 points 2 months ago

Forget about the euro vision and the blackjack

[-] DylanMc6@lemmy.ml 17 points 2 months ago

israel is NOT even in europe. seriously!

[-] JensSpahnpasta@feddit.org 6 points 2 months ago

We have the same discussion every year and the European Broadcast Union is not restricted to countries in Europe.

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[-] GissaMittJobb@lemmy.ml 11 points 2 months ago
[-] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 8 points 2 months ago
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[-] null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 2 months ago

I think its great that countries are excluding themselves on this basis.

However, im not surprised that the contest has remained agnostic and that israel has not withdrawn.

[-] MehBlah@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago

They should have their own contest with blackjack and hookers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-94qrgxH35M

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this post was submitted on 04 Dec 2025
294 points (96.5% liked)

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