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Ireland, Spain and the Netherlands will boycott next year’s Eurovision after Israel was given the all-clear to compete in next year’s song contest in spite of several participating broadcasters calling for its exclusion.
At the general assembly of the European Broadcasting Union, the body that organises the hugely popular international annual singing competition, no vote on Israel’s participation was held.
Instead, participating broadcasters voted only to introduce new rules designed to stop governments and third parties from disproportionately promoting songs to influence voters.
“A large majority of members agreed that there was no need for a further vote on participation and that the Eurovision song contest 2026 should proceed as planned, with the additional safeguards in place,” the EBU said in a statement.
In response, the Spanish broadcaster RTVE said it would not broadcast the contest, or the semi-finals in Vienna next year, calling the process of decision-making as “insufficient” and engendering “distrust”.
RTVE, along with seven other countries, had formally requested a secret ballot at the a summit of broadcasters in Geneva on Thursday.
“The EBU presidency has denied RTVE’s request for a specific vote on Israel’s participation. This decision increases RTVE’s distrust of the festival’s organisation and confirms the political pressure surrounding it,” it said in a statement.
In a statement released on Thursday afternoon, Dutch broadcaster Avrotros said it would also withdraw from next year’s contest as a result. “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.”
All eyes will now be on other countries whose broadcasters had threatened to boycott the next edition of the event if Israel was allowed to take part, including Iceland and Slovenia.
At the meeting on Thursday, EBU members discussed new rules designed to stop governments and third parties from disproportionately promoting songs to influence voters.
Some countries had raised concerns over undue promotion methods after Israel topped the public vote at the contest in May, finishing second overall after the jury votes were taken into consideration.
The proposed rule changes were seen as an olive branch to broadcasters critical of Israel, but appear to have been deemed insufficient.
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In September, Golan Yochpaz, the chief executive of the Israeli broadcaster Kan, said: “There is no reason why Israel should not continue to be a significant part of this cultural event, which cannot become political.”
The 2026 edition of the world’s largest live music event, the 70th in its history, will be held in Vienna, after this year’s win for Austrian singer JJ.
In Germany, leading politicians had proposed that the broadcaster SWR withdraw in solidarity if Israel were to be excluded. ORF, the Austrian host broadcaster, had also said it wanted Israel to compete.
SWR said before the meeting that Israel was entitled to compete in the contest. It said the contest, for decades, was “a competition organised by EBU broadcasters, not by governments” and “the Israeli broadcaster Kan meets all the requirements associated with participation” for 2026.
Russia was banned from Eurovision after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Israel, which has won the contest four times since its debut in 1973, has competed for the past two years despite disputes over its participation.
