After the concerted campaign by several imperialist powers and other countries to get Israel banned from the annual Eurovision Song Contest, part of their broader effort to make the Jewish state into a pariah, national broadcasters from Ireland, Spain, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Iceland announced they would boycott its next contest in Vienna in May 2026.
The Irish government’s RTE broadcaster said taking part in Eurovision with Israel was “unconscionable given the appalling loss of lives in Gaza and the humanitarian crisis there,” repeating blood libels promoted by Hamas.
RTE of course makes no mention of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, pogrom massacring 1,200 Jews and others in Israel, which started Israel’s defensive war to destroy the Nazi-like group. Nor does it mention Hamas’ responsibility for the deaths of Palestinians in Gaza, using them as human shields.
The Spanish government has also been in the forefront of Jew-hating attempts to get Israel excluded from sporting and other international events, spreading the lie that Israel is “exterminating a defenseless people.” Madrid is one of the largest funders of the Eurovision competition.
Israel has competed in Eurovision since 1973, because KAN, its public broadcasting company, is a member of the European Broadcasting Union. Its singers have won four times. Last year Israeli entrant Yuval Raphael, a survivor of Hamas’ attack on the Nova music festival, came in second.
The governments of Germany, France, the U.K. and Austria opposed the attempts to kick Israel out. But they have also been responsible for normalizing the international slander campaign against Israel, including spreading lies about widespread famine in Gaza. What underlines their different stance on Eurovision is the deepening rivalries between the competing capitalist powers.
Setting a bad precedent of using artistic and cultural performances to impose political viewpoints, Moscow has been banned from Eurovision since its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.