Four countries to boycott Eurovision after Israel approved to participate

Four countries are set to boycott the Eurovision song contest after the event's governing body announced Israel would be allowed to take part.

Spain, Ireland, Slovenia and the Netherlands all said they would not be participating due to Israel's ongoing genocide in Gaza and controversy surrounding the massive public support for Israeli candidates in previous editions.

Despite an expected showdown at the general assembly of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) on Thursday, in the end no vote was taken over Israel's participation.

“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.

The Spanish national broadcaster RTVE, along with seven other countries, had formally requested a secret ballot at the general assembly over whether to exclude Israel.

However, the EBU denied their request.

"This decision increases RTVE’s distrust of the festival’s organisation and confirms the political pressure surrounding it," the Spanish broadcaster reacted in a statement.

"The situation in Gaza, despite the ceasefire and the approval of the peace process, as well as the use of the contest for political purposes by Israel, make it increasingly difficult to maintain Eurovision as a neutral cultural event," RTVE secretary general Alfonso Morales said.

The Slovenian national broadcaster, RTVSLO, said taking part “would conflict with its values of peace, equality and respect”.

The British and German national broadcasters have both confirmed they will continue to participate.

New rules to detect fraud

The next edition of the contest will be the 70th anniversary and is due to take place in May 2026 in Vienna, after Austrian entry JJ won this year's contest with his song Wasted Love.

Israel this year was represented by Yuav Raphael, who survived the attack by Palestinian gunmen on the Nova festival on 7 October 2023, during which 378 people were killed.

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Raphael came second, although afterwards there were accusations of vote manipulation during the public round, with Spain’s national broadcaster requesting an audit of the results. 

Under pressure from calls for boycott, EBU announced on 21 November a change to the rules of the competition and a strengthening of efforts to "detect and prevent any fraudulent or coordinated voting activity".

The new measures, approved on Thursday, "strongly discourage any disproportionate promotional campaign [...], particularly if it is launched or supported by third parties, including a government or government agency", EBU said.

The competition allows all residents of the dozens of participating countries to vote by phone, SMS, or online. In each country, a jury of professionals also votes. Both votes carry equal weight.

But with the new rules, the maximum number of votes per payment method "will be reduced from 20 to 10".

Sixty five percent of delegates voted in favour of the changes to the song contest and for no further discussion on Israel's participation, while 23 percent of members voted against and 10 percent abstained.