Should members not be convinced about the new rules, there may be a vote on Israel<\/strong><\/a>‘s participation in 2026.<\/p>\n In November, the EBU changed the voting system for the song contest over allegations of “interference”<\/strong><\/a> from the Israeli government.<\/p>\n That came after Israeli singer Yuval Raphael received the largest number of votes from the public in this year’s contest, ultimately finishing as runner-up to Austria’s entry<\/strong><\/a> after the jury votes were counted.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n After the final in May, Irish broadcaster RTE requested a breakdown in voting numbers from the EBU, while Spain’s public broadcaster, Radio Television Espanola, called for a “complete review” of the voting system to avoid “external interference”.<\/p>\n Dutch public broadcaster AVROTROS added in September that <\/strong>there had been “proven interference by the Israeli government during the last edition of the Song Contest, with the event being used as a political instrument”.<\/p>\n Their statement did not elaborate on the means of “interference”.<\/p>\n Image: Israeli broadcaster still preparing entry<\/strong><\/p>\n Israel has not commented on the accusations regarding voting for the contest, which stresses its political neutrality, but it has frequently claimed that it faces a global smear campaign.<\/p>\n KAN, the Israeli public broadcaster, also said it is preparing for next year’s Eurovision content.<\/p>\n It added it will present its position on possible disqualification at the meeting.<\/p>\n Boycotts threatened over war in Gaza<\/strong><\/p>\n It comes after Slovenia and broadcasters from Spain<\/strong><\/a>, the Netherlands<\/strong><\/a>, Ireland<\/strong><\/a> and Iceland issued statements earlier this year saying they would consider boycotting the contest<\/strong><\/a> next year if Israel was allowed to enter over the war in Gaza<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n In September, officials from the EBU announced plans for an emergency vote<\/strong><\/a> on Israel’s participation, with president Delphine Ernotte-Cunci saying “given that the union has never faced a divisive situation like this before”. The board agreed it “merited a broader democratic basis for a decision”.<\/p>\n Read more on Sky News: That was then called off in October<\/strong><\/a> after Israel and Hamas agreed to the US-backed peace plan<\/strong><\/a> for Gaza.<\/p>\n More than 70,000 Palestinians have been killed during Israel’s war in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.<\/p>\n It was sparked by the 7 October 2023 attack by Palestinian militant group Hamas on Israel in which 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage to Gaza.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Members of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) will meet today to discuss Israel’s involvement in next year’s Eurovision…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":464950,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3937],"tags":[77,382,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-611754","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-tv","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115661613104047816","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611754","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=611754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611754\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/464950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=611754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=611754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=611754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Israel](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/skynews-eden-golan-israel_7017103.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n Israel has not commented on accusations of interference in voting. File pic: AP<\/p>\n
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