If you thought the end of the year would also bring an end to the turmoil surrounding Israel’s participation at Eurovision, then you would think wrong. The council of Slovenia’s national broadcaster, RTVSLO, has adopted a resolution calling for the withdrawal of Israel from Eurovision 2025.

At their 12th correspondence session, the council voted on a number of “mandatory guidelines for the management in finalising the financial plan and program-production plan for 2025” — i.e. rules RTVSLO management must follow during the new calendar year.

One of the new mandatory guidelines to be adopted is as follows:

The management of RTV Slovenia should immediately initiate a request within the EBU for Israel not to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest. The RTV Council and the public should be kept informed of these efforts.

The council expects RTVSLO management to get in direct contact with Eurovision organisers at the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and call for Israel’s removal from the 2025 contest in Basel. Additionally, management must keep the public aware of their correspondence with the EBU, rather than doing it purely behind the scenes.

This is the first instance of a participating broadcaster taking an official stance against Israel’s involvement at Eurovision. It sees RTVSLO coming into alignment with the government of Slovenia, which is one of the few EU member states to have joined the International Court of Justice’s proceedings against Israel.

As Eurovizija.com reports, two other resolutions were also tabled for the same matter. However, these were not adopted by the council.

The management of RTV Slovenia should immediately initiate a request within the EBU that Israel not participate in the Eurovision Song Contest. In the event of Israel’s participation, Slovenia will not participate and will not broadcast the event.
The management of RTV Slovenia should immediately initiate a request within the EBU that Israel not participate in the Eurovision Song Contest. In the event of Israel’s participation, we black out the broadcast of Israel’s performance.

Since the above motions were not passed, it is likely that Slovenia will still participate at Eurovision 2025 even if Israel is also present at the contest.

The blacking-out of any country’s entry is strictly against the rules of the contest. In 2018, China’s Mango TV lost Eurovision broadcasting rights after it censored the Irish and Albanian performances.

There has been no direct response yet from the EBU to this motion from RTVSLO. However, organisers have repeatedly affirmed their position over the last year that Israeli broadcaster Kan has the right to participate in Eurovision, noting that the contest must remain apolitical.

Israel was included amongst the list of 38 participating countries for Eurovision 2025 announced last week.

There have been repeated calls from musicians, fans, unions, human rights activists, and other notable figures for Israel’s removal from Eurovision since the beginning of the Israel-Gaza war in October 2023. The conflict has seen 45,000 people killed in Gaza, with multiple organisations accusing Israel of committing war crimes and acts of genocide.

The war began when Hamas carried out an attack in southern Israel on 7 October 2023, during which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.