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Eurovision is the world\u2019s biggest music event. Last year\u2019s event in Basel, Switzerland, attracted 166 million viewers.<\/p>\n
The letter is a powerful rejection of this year\u2019s event, stating it is \u201cbeing used to whitewash and normalise Israel\u2019s genocide, siege and brutal military occupation against Palestinians.\u201d It aligns itself \u201cwith Palestinian calls for public broadcasters, performers, screening party organisers, crew, and fans\u201d to boycott the event until the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) \u201cbans complicit Israeli broadcaster KAN.\u201d<\/p>\n
There have been repeated protests at Eurovision\u2019s continued inclusion and promotion of Israel despite its genocidal onslaught against the Palestinians. Some 15,000 people protested the 2024 final in Malm\u00f6, Sweden, while 4,000 artists from five Nordic countries signed a letter calling for Israel\u2019s exclusion from the 2025 contest.<\/p>\n
The EBU, which broadcasts the event worldwide, has insisted in the face of these protests that the contest is non-political. This letter, like last year\u2019s, highlights the hypocrisy by pointing to the different treatment given to Israel and Russia. Israel is \u201ccelebrated onstage\u2026 while Russia remains banned for its illegal invasion of Ukraine.\u201d<\/p>\n
These responses, the letter states, \u201chave removed any illusion of Eurovision\u2019s claimed \u2018neutrality\u2019.\u201d The EBU announced in 2022 that Russia\u2019s participation would \u201cbring the competition into disrepute,\u201d yet, as the letter notes, \u201cmore than 30 months of genocide in Gaza\u2014alongside ethnic cleansing and land theft in the besieged West Bank\u2014aren\u2019t considered sufficient to apply the same policy to Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n
The letter asks, \u201cHow can any performer or Eurovision fan in good conscience participate\u2026 amidst US-Israeli plans for hyper-surveilled concentration camps in \u2018New Gaza\u2019? There are moments in time when passive silence is not an option.\u201d<\/p>\n
The letter is a moving assertion of opposition to the ongoing genocide and the cultural devastation that accompanies it, and a significant recognition of the requirement for artists to speak out.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe refuse to be silent when Israel\u2019s genocidal violence soundtracks and silences Palestinian lives. When children in Israeli prisons endure beatings for humming a tune. When all that\u2019s left of nearly every stage, studio, bookshop and university in Gaza is piles of rubble, under which slaughtered bodies still await recovery and proper burial.<\/p>\n \u201cAs artists, we recognise our collective agency \u2013 and the power of refusal. We refuse to be silent. We refuse to be complicit. We call on others in our industry to join us. And we stand in solidarity with all principled efforts to end complicity in every industry.\u201d<\/p>\n It concludes simply: \u201cNo stage for genocide. #BoycottEurovision.\u201d<\/p>\n The letter applauds the withdrawal of broadcasters from Spain, Ireland, Iceland, Slovenia, and the Netherlands, and the national selection finalists who have committed to refuse to go to the event. It explicitly harks back to the boycott movement against apartheid South Africa as its model.<\/p>\n The EBU continues to back Israel\u2019s participation in the most disingenuous and hypocritical way. In December, Eurovision Executive Supervisor Martin Green wrote to fans saying \u201cmany of you feel strong emotions at this time,\u201d but insisting the contest could only continue if it was guided \u201cby our rules first and foremost.\u201d<\/p>\n This followed a vote at which a \u201clarge majority\u201d of its general assembly members agreed there was no need for a further vote on Israel\u2019s participation. They decided that the 2026 contest \u201cshould proceed as planned [i.e. with Israel], with the additional safeguards in place.\u201d<\/p>\n Two-thirds of the EBU representatives opposed any further discussion of Israel\u2019s participation, with 23 percent voting against and 10 percent abstaining. The BBC said it supported the \u201ccollective decision made by EBU members,\u201d and would go ahead with the broadcast, as did German broadcaster SWR.<\/p>\n The \u201csafeguards\u201d agreed by these votes were measures designed to prevent the disproportionate promotion of songs by governments and third parties to influence voting. They also included changes to the public voting system, restricting viewers to 10 votes rather than 20. This followed accusations that the Israeli government had broken the spirit of the contest\u2019s aim to bring people together by encouraging citizens abroad to use their 20 votes for the Israeli entry.<\/p>\n The EBU\u2019s consistency in applying its claimed no-politics policy only to critics of Israeli genocide is clear in its stance to Israeli entries over the last two years.<\/p>\n In 2024, the entry was originally called \u201cOctober Rain,\u201d referring directly to the October 7 Hamas incursion. Under pressure from protesters, Eden Golan\u2019s song was renamed \u201cHurricane\u201d at the last minute, but still allowed to go ahead. It was met with loud booing from parts of the audience.<\/p>\n For the 2025 contest, Yuval Raphael sang \u201cNew Day Will Rise.\u201d Raphael had attended the Nova Sukkot Gathering festival attacked by Hamas forces on October 7, 2023, that the fascistic Netanyahu government used as its pretext for the long-planned assault on Gaza. Israeli commentators noted that the videos for the song were a \u201cdirect continuation\u201d of that for \u201cOctober Rain\/Hurricane.\u201d<\/p>\n In a further provocation, Raphael presented the song on May 15, Nakba Day, which marks the ethnic cleansing of more than 700,000 Palestinians in 1948.<\/p>\n Raphael came second in the final, amid criticism of Israeli governmental lobbying for votes. Israeli President Isaac Herzog, declaring himself \u201cfully and actively committed\u201d to ensuring Israel is \u201crepresented on every stage around the world,\u201d said he hoped the contest would continue to promote \u201cculture, music, friendship between peoples and cross-border cultural understanding.\u201d<\/p>\n Apart from the Palestinians, who should be wiped out. <\/p>\n The open letter drew attention to Herzog\u2019s role in lobbying broadcasters over Israel\u2019s continued participation, noting that he had also been named in South Africa\u2019s submission to the International Court of Justice for incitement to genocide.<\/p>\n Many of the signatories have long records of opposition to the oppression of the Palestinians, and have been targeted for this. Macklemore\u2019s consistent criticism of the genocide, for example, led to a smear campaign<\/a> by Der Spiegel.<\/p>\n The sustained campaigns against artists criticising the genocide make the courage of their continued response all the more noteworthy. The Irish rap group Kneecap, who have been dragged through the courts under baseless terrorism charges, wrote on social media, \u201cWe have paid a price for speaking out\u2014canceled gigs, legal cases, visa bans\u2014and we would do it again tomorrow. Silence is complicity.\u201d<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/2c3adca7-71f8-4bce-9946-debc28c84ae1.png\"\/)
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Macklemore talking to fans in his 2024 concert series<\/p>\n