{"id":40106,"date":"2026-05-12T22:45:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T22:45:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/40106\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T22:45:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T22:45:11","slug":"israel-through-to-eurovision-final-after-shouts-of-stop-the-genocide-during-song-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/40106\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel through to Eurovision final after shouts of \u2018stop the genocide\u2019 during song \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Israel<\/a> has qualified for the grand final of the Eurovision Song Contest<\/a> amid hostile crowd chanting in Vienna, concerns about the integrity of voting procedures and a boycott of the event by broadcasters in five countries, including Ireland<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Israeli singer Noam Bettan was one of 10 acts to progress from the first semi-final on Tuesday night, though his performance of the song Michelle received a mixed response inside the Wiener Stadthalle.<\/p>\n

A voice in the crowd was heard repeatedly shouting \u201cstop, stop the genocide\u201d after Bettan came on stage, with the chant audible on the live broadcast throughout the introduction and first verse of the song.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of the audience seem to be giving their opinions on Israel\u2019s continued participation in the song contest,\u201d said presenter Angela Scanlon, who was commentating for the BBC, after the performance concluded.<\/p>\n

The favourites to win this year\u2019s Eurovision, Finnish entrants Linda Lampenius and Pete Parkkonen, also secured their passage, while Greece, Belgium, Sweden, Moldova, Serbia, Croatia, Lithuania and Poland will join them in the final on Saturday night.<\/p>\n

But Portugal, Georgia, Montenegro, Estonia and San Marino were eliminated after a semi-final that was decided by a combination of national juries and a public vote. This meant that British pop star Boy George, who was singing for San Marino, did not make it through.<\/p>\n

\"BoyBoy George and Italian singer Senhit (third from right) representing San Marino with the song ‘Superstar’ in Tuesday’s Eurovision Song Contest semi-final in Vienna. Photograph: Tobias Schwarz\/AFP via Getty Images <\/p>\n

The results were announced in random order by presenters Victoria Swarovski and Michael Ostrowski.<\/p>\n

Austrian police were on high alert before the first semi-final, though Reuters reported that a pro-Palestinian demonstration initially expected to attract about 500 people on Tuesday afternoon only drew about 30. Further protests are anticipated this week.<\/p>\n

Thirty-five countries are taking part in this year\u2019s Eurovision, the lowest number since 2003. Broadcasters in Ireland, Spain, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Iceland are boycotting it in protest against the participation of Israel, with RT\u00c9<\/a>, Spanish broadcaster RTVE and Slovenia\u2019s RTV also deciding not to air the competition.<\/p>\n

This followed a move by the European Broadcasting Union \u2013 the alliance of public service broadcasters that organises the song contest \u2013 to tighten the voting and campaigning rules that govern Eurovision without holding a vote on whether Israel should take part.<\/p>\n

RT\u00c9 said in December that it felt Ireland\u2019s participation would be \u201cunconscionable given the appalling loss of lives in Gaza<\/a> and the humanitarian crisis there, which continues to put the lives of so many civilians at risk\u201d. It also said it was deeply concerned by the targeted killing of journalists in Gaza during the conflict and by Israel\u2019s barring of international journalists from the territory.<\/p>\n

Some broadcasters, including Germany\u2019s Ard and Austrian host broadcaster Orf, strongly supported Israel\u2019s inclusion. But several \u2013 including Spain\u2019s RTVE, one of the \u201cbig five\u201d funders of the European Broadcasting Union \u2013 asked questions about the nature of the Israeli campaign for votes during the 2025 song contest, at which it unexpectedly topped the public vote and finished second overall.<\/p>\n

\"NoamNoam Bettan representing Israel in the first semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest at Wiener Stadthalle in Vienna, Austria. Photograph: Christian Bruna\/Getty Images <\/p>\n

The maximum number of votes fans can cast has since been halved to 10 in a bid to make the system less vulnerable to manipulation, while juries have returned to the semi-finals for the first time since 2022. The organisers also pledged to \u201cstrengthen monitoring of suspicious patterns\u201d and banned campaigns for votes by third parties, including governments and government agencies.<\/p>\n

Eurovision director Martin Green on Monday responded vigorously to a story in The New York Times about Israel\u2019s use of the song contest as a tool of soft power, suggesting a lot of it was a \u201crehash\u201d and that it appeared be \u201ca whole article about who did not win\u201d the competition in 2025.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust because I enjoy saying this every time, [Austrian singer] JJ won the Eurovision Song Contest last year, fairly and squarely. I don\u2019t really have much to say about it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

But the organisers remain under pressure to show that they can uphold the integrity of the competition, which is now in its 70th year and has traditionally claimed to be a \u201cnon-political\u201d event.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Eurovision 2026: From boycotts to media blackouts, this is now a spectacle under pressureOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

At the weekend, Green said a formal warning letter had been issued to Kan, the Israeli broadcaster, after videos with an onscreen instruction to \u201cvote 10 times for Israel\u201d were published and released on behalf of Bettan.<\/p>\n

Green said the EBU was \u201csatisfied\u201d that the video was not a large-scale campaign funded by a third party, but he also said the direct call-to-action was \u201cnot in line with our rules nor the spirit of the competition\u201d.<\/p>\n

The first semi-final, which Irish audiences could watch on BBC One, also saw performances by two of the remaining \u201cbig four\u201d countries, Italy and Germany, who proceed directly to the grand final thanks to their status as major financial contributors.<\/p>\n

Scanlon\u2019s co-commentator, Rylan, noted on air that Eurovision was facing \u201cone of its most challenging years\u201d as a result of the five countries\u2019 withdrawal and that \u201ca lot of controversy\u201d surrounded Israel\u2019s participation.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Swarovski suggested the public should \u201cspread the love\u201d and vote for more than one song.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Israel has qualified for the grand final of the Eurovision Song Contest amid hostile crowd chanting in Vienna,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":40107,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20858],"tags":[20875,1452,11004,21217,20859,20860,145,23758],"class_list":{"0":"post-40106","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eurovision","8":"tag-angela-scanlon","9":"tag-austria","10":"tag-bbc","11":"tag-boy-george","12":"tag-eurovision","13":"tag-eurovision-song-contest-2026","14":"tag-israel","15":"tag-rte"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40106\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}