Discord over Israel splits Eurovision

Boycotts, protests and fears about vote-rigging are threatening to overshadow this week’s Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna.

At the center of the storm: Israel.

Europe’s premier annual evening of camp culture, watched by tens of millions of people across the continent, has become embroiled in a societal clash over Israel’s military operations in the Middle East — and how to balance criticism of the country without fueling antisemitism.

With groups planning to protest in the Austrian capital against Israel’s participation, Viennese police are ramping up security precautions “far beyond the usual level,” the force’s vice president Dieter Csefan told POLITICO.

Event organizers have desperately attempted to quell the furor — and preserve what they say should be a politics-free night of European entertainment — after it flared into full crisis late last year when five countries declared they would boycott this year’s Eurovision competition if Israel were allowed to take part.

“We’ve got five members of our family missing this year, and we miss them, and we love them, and we hope they come back,” Martin Green, director of the Eurovision Song Contest, told reporters Monday in Vienna.

Green said the contest remains “in conversations” with Spain, the Netherlands, Ireland, Slovenia and Iceland. He said that while Eurovision will “do anything in our power” to bring them back into the fold in future years, “ultimately, it’s up to them.”

Director of The Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) Martin Green speaks during a press conference for the announcement of the host city of the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest on August 20, 2025 in Vienna. | Tobias Steinmaurer/APA/AFP via Getty Images

The countries sitting out this year’s 70th anniversary contest at the spaceship-esque Wiener Stadthalle say their decision is due to Israel’s war in Gaza — sparked by a violent attack on Israel by Hamas militants — and the resulting humanitarian crisis it triggered.

The European Broadcasting Union (EBU), an alliance of 113 public service media across 56 countries that runs Eurovision, has repeatedly underlined that the song contest is nonpolitical and takes place between broadcasters rather than governments. The EBU has said that as long as Israel’s public broadcaster, KAN, plays by the rules, it won’t be blocked from participating. Israel advanced from the semifinal on Tuesday and will take part in the final on May 16.

Natalija Gorščak, president of the management board at Slovenia’s national broadcaster (RTV), noted that Russia got kicked out in 2022 for invading Ukraine. Israel, she said, should face the same consequences for its war in Gaza.

She added that “there should be the same rules for all countries” acting aggressively toward another.

Gaming the vote

Changes to the voting structure followed suggestions that the Israeli government unfairly influenced last year’s results through a mass voting campaign.

Moderator Austrian singer Cesar Sampson holds a draw for Israel during the draw session for the two semi-final events of the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 on stage at the Vienna’s city hall in Vienna on January 12, 2026. | Joe Klamar/AFP via Getty Images

Israel dominated the public vote, and only lost out when Austria reclaimed ground with points from national juries. Broadcasters in Belgium, Spain, Ireland, the Netherlands, Finland and Iceland raised concerns about the public vote, with some requesting an audit.

Israel’s public broadcaster KAN said it was “not involved in any prohibited campaign intended to influence the results of the latest contest, in which Yuval Raphael came second — as confirmed by the EBU itself.” The Israeli government did not at the time make any official comment about the concerns that were raised.

KAN has strongly pushed back against calls to recuse itself or be removed from the 2026 contest. Golan Yochpaz, KAN’s CEO, told fellow EBU members in December that a “cultural boycott” of Israel could harm “freedom of creation and freedom of expression.”

“A boycott may begin today — with Israel — but no one knows where it will end or who else it may harm,” he said. He insisted that Israel hasn’t been involved in any prohibited campaign to influence Eurovision results.

“We are proud of the artists and songs we have sent to the contest, many of which have achieved global success. I will not stand here and apologize for our success,” Yochpaz said.

Gorščak commended the EBU’s efforts to overhaul voting rules, brought in this year. Among the changes, the EBU has taken steps to reduce the number of votes each member of the public can cast, and fans are being encouraged not to concentrate their votes on one act. But, she noted, politically charged voting in the song contest is now “something that you cannot escape.”

Last weekend, the EBU issued a formal warning letter to KAN, after the artist representing Israel this year (Noam Bettan) published social media videos with an on-screen instruction to “vote 10 times for Israel.”

Israeli singer Noam Bettan poses for photographers on the turquoise carpet for the opening ceremony of the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 at the City Hall Square in Vienna on May 10, 2026. | Tobias Schwarz/AFP via Getty Images

The EBU said it was satisfied this was not a “large-scale funded third-party campaign” by Israel to influence the outcome of this year’s competition, but added the call to action to vote 10 times for one artist or song is still “not in line” with Eurovision rules.

KAN said that the videos were an “independent initiative” carried out by Bettan’s team “without any prohibited financing, similar to activities conducted by other contestants as well,” in a statement responding to the EBU’s warning letter, and shared with POLITICO.

The Israeli broadcaster said the artist immediately stopped using the videos following an EBU request, and added that it “follows all EBU rules and remains in constant contact with the organization.”

‘Watershed moment’

As the votes from the public and juries roll in on Saturday, Irish European Parliament liberal lawmaker and former Eurovision presenter Cynthia Ní Mhurchú told POLITICO that it will be a “watershed moment” for the song contest.

“The EBU need to take stock, more stock than they’ve taken, in the run-up to the finale on the 16th. I understand the arguments that they make, that it’s arts, it’s culture, it has nothing to do with politics. But unfortunately, we live in a world now where every vehicle will be used to inform a political message, or misinform,” Ní Mhurchú said.

“You can’t just broadcast in a vacuum,” she said, adding that allowing Israel to participate amid the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza chips away at the European values the contest was founded on.

The establishment of the EBU and the first Eurovision contest in 1956 brought European countries and broadcasters together in the aftermath of World War II. To this day, the contest’s motto is “united by music.”

But the boycott brings the number of participating countries (35) to its lowest level in more than two decades — and the scale of the boycott is unprecedented in Eurovision’s history.

Some former Eurovision winners have also been distancing themselves from the competition.

“If there was a trophy I could give back, I would. I think the European Broadcasting Union should wake up to this whole thing, it’s crazy,” Charlie McGettigan, who won the 1994 contest for Ireland with the song “Rock ‘n’ Roll Kids” performed with Paul Harrington, told POLITICO.

For McGettigan, you can’t separate music and politics. “Some people will say Eurovision isn’t political, it’s entertainment and fun, but music in my life has always been political … artists use their music as a means of communicating their distaste with what’s happening in the world, to make a voice for themselves against war and against violence,” he said.

Austria’s public broadcaster says it would be a shame if that brought Eurovision to an end.

Michael Krön, Eurovision executive producer with ORF, told POLITICO that “art is never without any political statement,” but the song contest “could still serve to bring people together, to have a week to forget about the cold and hard world we’re living in, and have a good time.”

“It would be very, very sad if Eurovision would vanish … What’s wrong in trying to entertain people and having them in a good mood for a week? I think there’s nothing wrong with that, and I think we should do the utmost that the world’s politics cannot interfere into that,” he said.