The council of Slovenian broadcaster RTV SLO is demanding that Israel withdraw from the Eurovision Song Contest 2025.
RTV SLO’s council proposed a resolution at its 12th correspondence session from 9-11 December 2024, where the subject of Israel’s participation at Eurovision, and how RTV SLO should respond, was discussed.
At the meeting, a resolution was proposed that says that RTV SLO’s Management Board should immediately initiate a request with contest organisers the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) for Israel not to participate at the upcoming contest in Basel, Switzerland.
The resolution, which was accepted at the meeting, says that RTV SLO must keep the broadcaster’s council and the wider public informed about their efforts. Evrovizija.com reports that the resolution will be part of “mandatory guidelines for the management in finalising the financial plan and program-production plan for 2025” at the broadcaster.
This resolution was one of three proposed at the meeting, but it was the only one that passed. The other two resolutions, which were not accepted, were:
The RTV Slovenia Management Board should immediately initiate a request within the EBU for Israel not to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest. In the event of Israel’s participation, we will black out the broadcast of Israel’s performance.
The RTV Slovenia management should immediately initiate a request within the EBU for Israel not to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest. It should keep the RTV Council and the public informed about its efforts.
As a result, the broadcaster is not required to withdraw from Eurovision 2025 should Israel participate. However, this resolution means that the broadcaster must actively call on the EBU to consider whether Israel should be allowed to compete at the contest.
It is important to note that the first resolution calling for a blackout of the Israeli performance would be a breach of contest rules. In 2005 the Lebanese broadcaster Tele Liban which was due to compete in Kyiv, would not confirm that it would air the Israeli performance. As a result it was forced to withdraw and fined by the EBU.
While several have openly called on countries to withdraw from Eurovision over Israel’s participation, this is the first example of a broadcaster being directed by a part of its management to demand that Israel withdraw from Eurovision.
Israel’s participation at Eurovision has been a controversial topic since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war on October 7, 2023. Many artists, musicians and fans across Europe have called for Israel to be excluded from the competition because of their involvement in military action.
Slovenia was represented by Raiven at this year’s contest, who performed “Veronika”. The song qualified for the Grand Final, where it placed in 23rd overall, scoring 17 points.
Image Source: EBU / Alma Bengtsson | Source: Evrovizija.com
Slovenia was one of three countries to join the Eurovision Song Contest in 1993. The country qualified through a specially organised selection round called “Kvalifikacija za Millstreet” which was hosted in Slovenia, seven countries competed for three spots in Eurovision 1993. The country has participated in 22 editions of the Eurovision Song Contest. Their best result came in 1995 when Darja Švajger finished 7th scoring a total of 84 points, she is closely followed by Nuša Derenda who finished 7th in the 2001 contest with 70 points.
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