{"id":24780,"date":"2026-05-16T22:01:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T22:01:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/24780\/"},"modified":"2026-05-16T22:01:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T22:01:13","slug":"thousands-protest-at-eurovision-final-as-five-countries-boycott-over-israel-protests-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/24780\/","title":{"rendered":"Thousands protest at Eurovision final as five countries boycott over Israel | Protests News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Spain, Netherlands, Ireland, Iceland and Slovenia all withdrew in protest against Israel\u2019s participation in the midst of its war on Gaza.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Published On 16 May 202616 May 2026<\/p>\n

As the Eurovision Song Contest took to the stage for the Saturday night final in Vienna, thousands protested outside against Israel\u2019s inclusion, and five countries boycotted the event over the genocidal war on Gaza<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Protesters marched through the Austrian capital to highlight what critics described as a double standard. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) organisers refused to exclude Israel, despite banning Russia following its invasion of Ukraine four years ago.<\/p>\n

Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list<\/p>\n

Eurovision, which attracted 166 million viewers last year, is seeing the largest boycott in its 70-year history.<\/p>\n

Spain, the Netherlands, Ireland, Iceland and Slovenia all withdrew because of Israel\u2019s inclusion, with some of their national broadcasters refusing to air the show.<\/p>\n

Spain\u2019s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who has emerged as one of Israel\u2019s strongest critics in Europe, said on Friday that the decision puts Spain on \u201cthe right side of history\u201d.<\/p>\n

Last month, more than 1,000 artists called on fans to boycott Eurovision in an open letter against Israel\u2019s participation. Among the artists were outspoken critics of Israel, Macklemore and Paloma Faith. Macklemore has released songs protesting against Israel\u2019s war in Gaza.<\/p>\n

Double standards<\/p>\n

On Monday, Amnesty International Secretary-General Agnes Callamard denounced the EBU for allowing Israel to participate.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe failure of the European Broadcasting Union 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 she said.<\/p>\n

Reporting from Vienna, Al Jazeera\u2019s Charlie Angela said 2,000 demonstrators gathered in the city earlier on Saturday to protest against Israel\u2019s participation.<\/p>\n

Angela reported that protesters accused the competition of normalising Israel\u2019s actions in Gaza, adding that Eurovision was \u201cbending over backwards\u201d to justify including Israel while excluding Russia.<\/p>\n

Russia has faced a widespread cultural boycott following the Ukraine invasion. It is banned<\/a> from international football tournaments, and FIFA and UEFA have excluded Russian domestic teams from all competitions, including the Champions League.<\/p>\n

The winner of Eurovision will be selected by both a professional jury and TV viewers voting for their favourite act.<\/p>\n

Austria won the competition last year, with Israel second.<\/p>\n

The Israeli government was later accused of unfairly influencing voting. New rules have since been introduced.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Spain, Netherlands, Ireland, Iceland and Slovenia all withdrew in protest against Israel\u2019s participation in the midst of its…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24781,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[13061,11350,1373,66,398,945,13062,3385,32,274,202,3510,2938,273,8790,3018,2064,17,13060],"class_list":["post-24780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-spain","tag-arts-and-culture","tag-austria","tag-entertainment","tag-europe","tag-gaza","tag-human-rights","tag-iceland","tag-ireland","tag-israel","tag-israel-palestine-conflict","tag-middle-east","tag-music","tag-netherlands","tag-news","tag-protests","tag-russia","tag-slovenia","tag-spain","tag-tv-shows"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24780"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24780\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}