{"id":430221,"date":"2025-09-17T02:44:14","date_gmt":"2025-09-17T02:44:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/430221\/"},"modified":"2025-09-17T02:44:14","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T02:44:14","slug":"crisis-engulfs-eurovision-over-israel-and-gaza-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/430221\/","title":{"rendered":"Crisis engulfs Eurovision over Israel and Gaza \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some broadcasters have rowed in behind the EBU\u2019s current stance that the competition should remain apolitical. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Germany\u2019s umbrella organization of regional broadcasters, ARD, will support whatever decision the EBU makes, said SWR (the regional broadcaster in charge of organizing Germany\u2019s Eurovision participation) in a statement to POLITICO.<\/p>\n

An SWR spokesperson said Eurovision is a \u201ccompetition organized by broadcasters, not by governments,\u201d that connects people \u201cregardless of origin, religion, or beliefs.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Europe is grappling with whether cultural bans on Israeli artists and athletes are legitimate sanctions. | Sebastian Reuter\/Getty Images <\/p>\n

The director general of the U.K\u2019s public broadcaster said this week<\/a> that Eurovision has \u201cnever been about politics,\u201d\u00a0and it is up to the EBU to decide who participates. <\/p>\n

That said, in 2022, the EBU banned Russia<\/a> from the competition following the country\u2019s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, symbolizing the awkward intersection of politics and culture at which Eurovision sits. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Eurovision expert Jordan, who also worked for the music contest\u2019s communications team <\/strong>for three years, warns that the EBU is currently walking a tightrope on Israel, with a \u201ctense few months ahead,\u201d which have \u201cthe potential for the contest to unravel.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the beauty of Eurovision, and the reason why it\u2019s lasted so long, is that it has been an inclusive space. I think it would be a great shame if it becomes a political football,\u201d he said. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Aitor Hern\u00e1ndez-Morales contributed to this report. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Some broadcasters have rowed in behind the EBU\u2019s current stance that the competition should remain apolitical. \u00a0 Germany\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":430222,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[77,1824,7059,678,837,1815,7163,2199,2452,839,44593,18111,104,3053,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-430221","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-germany","10":"tag-iceland","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-israel","13":"tag-israel-hamas-war","14":"tag-israeli-palestinian-conflict","15":"tag-italy","16":"tag-media","17":"tag-middle-east","18":"tag-social-affairs","19":"tag-society-and-culture","20":"tag-spain","21":"tag-the-netherlands","22":"tag-uk","23":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115217345093238691","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430221","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=430221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430221\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/430222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=430221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=430221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=430221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}