{"id":10723,"date":"2025-04-11T12:16:11","date_gmt":"2025-04-11T12:16:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/10723\/"},"modified":"2025-04-11T12:16:11","modified_gmt":"2025-04-11T12:16:11","slug":"%f0%9f%87%aa%f0%9f%87%b8-spain-rtve-calls-for-debate-on-israels-eurovision-participation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/10723\/","title":{"rendered":"\ud83c\uddea\ud83c\uddf8 Spain: RTVE Calls for Debate on Israel’s Eurovision Participation"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Spanish broadcaster RTVE has issued a statement calling on the EBU to hold a debate on Israel\u2019s participation at Eurovision 2025.<\/p>\n

The statement, released on their website, says that they have written to the Director General of the EBU, Noel Curran, requesting the opening of a debate within the organisation. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which organises Eurovision, is a membership body comprised of broadcasters from across Europe, many of whom compete at the contest.<\/p>\n

RTVE says in its statement that it is acknowledging \u201cthe concerns raised by various civil society groups in Spain regarding the situation in Gaza.\u201d Furthermore, the broadcaster says they feel it would be \u201cappropriate\u201d for the EBU\u2019s members to debate whether the Israeli broadcaster, KAN, should be allowed to compete at the contest.<\/p>\n

The full statement reads as follows:<\/p>\n

\n

In accordance with the agreements reached by the Board of Directors, the president of RTVE Corporation has written to the director general of EBU, Noel Curran, requesting the opening of a debate within the organization on the participation of Israel\u2019s public television (KAN) in the next Eurovision Song Contest, to be held in Basel in May.<\/p>\n

In this letter, RTVE conveys its commitment to the EBU, but also acknowledges the concerns raised by various civil society groups in Spain regarding the situation in Gaza and the participation of the public television station KAN in the competition.<\/p>\n

RTVE believes it would be appropriate for the EBU to recognize the existence of this debate and facilitate a space for reflection among EBU member broadcasters on the participation of Israeli public television station KAN.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

RTVE\u2019s statement does not mean that they are actively calling for an Israeli withdrawal. However, their statement does indicate that they feel Israel\u2019s continued participation in Europe is something that should be spoken about and considered by the wider membership of the EBU.<\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Spain\u2019s broadcaster is not the first EBU member to raise concerns about Israel\u2019s participation in Eurovision 2025. Several months ago, the council of Slovenia\u2019s RTV SLO<\/a> directed the broadcaster\u2019s Management Board to initiate a request with the EBU for Israel not to participate in the contest.<\/p>\n

As part of the directive from the council, the Management Board was required to \u201ckeep the broadcaster\u2019s council and the wider public informed about their efforts.\u201d However, since that news was reported, there have been no further updates from RTV SLO.<\/p>\n

As it stands, Israel will participate in Eurovision 2025 as normal, with Yuval Raphael performing \u201cNew Day Will Rise\u201d in Basel. Spain will be represented by Melody and her song \u201cEsa Diva\u201d at the upcoming contest in May.<\/p>\n

Image Source: Daniel Stridh \/ Eurovoix | Source: RTVE<\/a><\/p>\n

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Tags: eurovision 2025<\/a> Headline<\/a> participation<\/a> spain<\/a>\t<\/p>\n

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Posted by:Eurovoix Team<\/p>\n

News from the Eurovoix Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Spanish broadcaster RTVE has issued a statement calling on the EBU to hold a debate on Israel\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10724,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5312],"tags":[2000,299,7377,2774,7378,104],"class_list":{"0":"post-10723","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-spain","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-eurovision-2025","11":"tag-headline","12":"tag-participation","13":"tag-spain"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114319286883234260","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10723"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10723\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}