Despite its name, the contest is not restricted to European nations. All countries with broadcast operations located in Europe are eligible to take part. The contest organisations can also make special invitations. In 2015, for example, EBU invited<\/a> the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) of Australia to participate in the 60th edition of the contest.<\/p>\n Israel was the first non-European country to participate in Eurovision in 1973 and also hosted the event in Tel Aviv in 2019.<\/p>\n While the rules have been altered from time to time, each participating country generally submits one original song, which should be around three minutes long and can be performed by up to six musical artists on stage for the semifinals as well as the final event.<\/p>\n This year, artists from 35 countries, including Israel, are heading to Austria to compete in the 70th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest.<\/p>\n Immediately after Israel\u2019s participation was confirmed by EBU in December last year, some countries, politicians and musical artists began calling for a boycott of the contest.<\/p>\n On December 4, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Spain, Iceland and Ireland said<\/a> they would boycott the contest if Israel took part.<\/p>\n Dutch broadcaster AVROTROS, representing the Netherlands, accused Israel of \u201cproven interference\u201d in last year\u2019s contest while also noting its \u201cserious violation of press freedom\u201d during the Gaza war. It said that \u201cunder the current circumstances, participation cannot be reconciled with the public values that are fundamental to our organisation\u201d.<\/p>\n Ireland said it would not take part either, with its broadcaster RTE also citing \u201cthe appalling loss of lives in Gaza and humanitarian crisis\u201d as the reason for its boycott.<\/p>\n Slovenia\u2019s national broadcaster said it would boycott participation \u201con behalf of the 20,000 children who died in Gaza\u201d, while Spain\u2019s public broadcaster RTVE also announced that it would not participate. \u201cThe situation in Gaza, despite the ceasefire and the approval of the peace process, and the use of the contest for political goals by Israel, make it increasingly difficult to keep Eurovision a neutral cultural event,\u201d its secretary-general, Alfonso Morales, said in a statement.<\/p>\n On December 10, Iceland\u2019s broadcaster RUV said that the Nordic nation would also not participate in the 2026 competition. \u201cIt is clear from the public debate in this country and the reaction to the EBU\u2019s decision last week that there will be neither joy nor peace regarding RUV\u2019s participation,\u201d the broadcaster\u2019s director-general Stefan Eiriksson said<\/a> in a statement.<\/p>\n Who else objects to Israel\u2019s participation?<\/p>\n Ahead of the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest semifinals, in which\u202fIsrael will\u202fparticipate, Amnesty International\u2019s Secretary-General Agnes\u202fCallamard said: \u201cThe failure of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) to suspend Israel from Eurovision, as it did with Russia, is an act of cowardice and an illustration of blatant double standards when it comes to Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cInstead of sending a clear message that there is a cost for Israel\u2019s atrocity crimes against the Palestinian people, the EBU has given\u202fIsrael\u202fthis\u202finternational\u202fstage even as it continues to commit genocide in Gaza, unlawful occupation and apartheid,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cIsraeli participation in the Eurovision Song Contest offers the country a platform to try to deflect attention from and normalise its ongoing genocide in the occupied Gaza Strip, and its moves towards further annexation of Gaza and the West Bank including East Jerusalem, as well as its system of apartheid against Palestinians.\u201d<\/p>\n Sven Kuhn von Burgsdorff, former European Union representative to the occupied West Bank and Gaza, said the actions of both Russia and Israel against Ukraine and the Palestinian people, respectively, have been found to be in violation of international law and human rights.<\/p>\n \u201cIt would be only consequential to also suspend Israel\u2019s participation in the Eurovision song contest as long as the country maintains its illegal occupation of Palestinian land, thereby not only suppressing Palestinian rights but also entrenching a regime with characteristics of segregation or apartheid, as ruled by the International Court of Justice (ICJ),\u201d he told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n In April, more than 1,000 musicians and people working in the cultural sector signed a letter calling on nations to boycott the contest and accused EBU of hypocrisy over its refusal to allow Russia to take part because of its invasion of Ukraine in 2022.<\/p>\n \u201cThe EBU\u2019s hypocritical responses to Russia\u2019s and Israel\u2019s crimes have removed any illusion of Eurovision\u2019s claimed \u2018neutrality.\u2019 In 2022, the EBU said that Russia\u2019s presence would \u2018bring the competition into disrepute\u2019,\u201d the letter stated.<\/p>\n \u201cYet more than 30 months of genocide in Gaza \u2013 alongside ethnic cleansing and land theft in the besieged West Bank \u2013 aren\u2019t considered sufficient to apply the same policy to Israel,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n The letter was organised by the campaign group No Music for Genocide and was signed<\/a> by famous bands like Kneecap and musicians including Roger Waters, Paul Weller, Paloma Faith, Macklemore and former Eurovision winners such as Emmelie de Forest and Charlie McGettigan.<\/p>\n In 2024, some European Parliament members and politicians from Spain\u2019s left-wing Podemos party had also signed<\/a> a letter seen by Al Jazeera that noted that in 2022, the Eurovision Song Contest suspended Russia in response to its invasion of Ukraine, but fined Iceland because the Icelandic contestant displayed a Palestinian flag at the Eurovision Song Contest in Tel Aviv in 2019.<\/p>\n \u201cIsrael\u2019s participation is in clear conflict with what the EBU claims to stand for, as it misinforms about Israel and conceals its genocidal behaviour,\u201d the letter said.<\/p>\n The winner of 2024\u2019s contest, Switzerland\u2019s Nemo, pledged to return the trophy in protest over Israel\u2019s continued participation in the event.<\/p>\n \u201cI no longer feel like this trophy belongs on my shelf,\u201d Nemo said<\/a> on Instagram last December.<\/p>\n In solidarity, Irish artist Charlie McGettigan, who won the 1994 Eurovision contest, said he also plans to return his winning trophy.<\/p>\n \u201cFollowing on from 2024 winner Nemo doing the same yesterday, this is great solidarity with the Palestinian people,\u201d the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign wrote on December 12 on social media<\/a> in response to McGettigan\u2019s announcement.<\/p>\n During the past two editions of the contest, pro-Palestinian activists have protested over Israel\u2019s participation in the host cities Malmo, Sweden, in 2024 and in Basel, Switzerland in May 2025.<\/p>\n Does anyone support Israel\u2019s inclusion in the contest?<\/p>\n Yes, last December, Germany, a major Eurovision backer, said it would not take part<\/a> if Israel was barred. \u201cIsrael belongs in the Eurovision Song Contest,\u201d said German Commissioner for Culture and the Media Wolfram Weimer.<\/p>\n Then, on April 15 this year, a pro-Israel, non-profit initiative called \u201cCreative Community for Peace\u201d published an open letter supporting Israel\u2019s participation. The letter was signed<\/a> by more than 1,000 members of the global entertainment industry, including actors Amy Schumer, Mila Kunis and Jerry O\u2019Connell.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have been shocked and disappointed to see some members of the entertainment community calling for Israel to be banished from the Contest for responding to the greatest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust,\u201d the letter read.<\/p>\n \u201cWe believe that unifying events such as singing competitions are crucial to help bridge our cultural divides and unite people of all backgrounds through their shared love of music,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n \u201cThose who are calling for Israel\u2019s exclusion are subverting the spirit of the Contest and turning it from a celebration of unity into a tool of politics.\u201d<\/p>\n However, former EU representative von Burgsdorff said calling for Israel to be banned from the competition \u201cis not at all about sanctioning Israeli artists, but about ensuring that a government cannot instrumentalise the Eurovision song contest platform for its own propaganda and reputational benefit while it continues to commit egregious violations of human rights and humanitarian law in Gaza and the West Bank\u201d.<\/p>\n Sanjeev Kumar, a pro-Palestinian activist based in Belgium, said Israel has been allowed to participate in the contest because European governments, in collaboration with their national broadcasting associations and the EBU, support Israel\u2019s genocide in Gaza and its ongoing attacks in the occupied West Bank and now Lebanon.<\/p>\n \u201cThe evidence for this can be seen in the position of Germany, which threatened to pull out of the contest altogether if Israel were banned. Moreover, the EBU is morally bankrupt and institutionally incompetent. Russia was outlawed because governments and broadcasters threatened to boycott the EBU, effectively making a decision for them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe response to Ukraine and Palestine highlights the bitter and twisted hollowness of European values that have plagued humanity for the last 400 years,\u201d Kumar added.<\/p>\n How has EBU handled the pressure to bar Israel from the contest?<\/p>\n The European Broadcasting Union, the organiser of the Eurovision Song Contest, has come under increasing pressure to exclude Israel from the competition since Israel\u2019s genocide in Gaza began.<\/p>\n The contest\u2019s voting system also came under scrutiny when Yuval Raphael, who represented Israel at the competition last year, jumped to second place in the contest\u2019s public vote despite lower jury scores.<\/p>\n Last November, EBU sent a letter to its members indicating that an extra vote would take place at an extraordinary general meeting held online in early November to decide on Israel\u2019s participation.<\/p>\n The vote would be on whether KAN, the Israeli public broadcaster and member of the EBU, should take part, a spokesperson told the media. An \u201cabsolute majority\u201d would be required for an exclusion to pass, he added.<\/p>\n The director of the contest, Martin Green, also said<\/a> in a statement in November 2025 that \u201cthe neutrality and integrity of the Eurovision Song Contest is of paramount importance to the EBU, its Members, and all our audiences\u201d and highlighted that \u201cthe fairness of the Contest is always protected\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are taking clear and decisive steps to ensure the contest remains a celebration of music and unity. The Contest should remain a neutral space and must not be instrumentalised,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Then on December 4, after its annual meeting, EBU gave Israel the green light to participate and said<\/a>: \u201cA 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.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Eurovision\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/2026-05-10T175225Z_1017925004_RC2H6LA2XHN7_RTRMADP_3_MUSIC-EUROVISION-1778486764.jpg\")
Noam Bettan, representing Israel, attends the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest\u2019s \u2018Turquoise Carpet\u2019 event in Vienna, Austria, on May 10, 2026 [Lisa Leutner\/Reuters]Who is boycotting Eurovision this year?<\/p>\n