Israel at Eurovision

By Theodoris Georgakopoulou

Is it right for Israel to still take part in the international song contest taking place tonight in Vienna? Is it right for artists from that country to compete normally in the Venice Biennale or for its athletes to participate in the 2028 Olympic Games?

At a time when international sports and cultural events are placing restrictions or bans on Russian representatives, why are no similar limits being imposed on representatives of a state that, according to many credible voices, is responsible for genocide in Gaza?

Of course, this is not the world’s biggest problem today. But the issue goes beyond a single event or competition and touches more broadly on how the international community treats members who act outside accepted boundaries.

Israel’s participation in Eurovision also includes another dimension that is often missing from public debate. It is worth remembering that the organizer of Eurovision is the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), an independent association of public service broadcasters from 56 countries. In essence, it is a global network of national broadcasters that share content and expertise, negotiate TV rights together, take part in joint initiatives, and, of course, co-organize the famous music contest.

In 2022, when Russia invaded another EBU member state, the response was swift. Russia’s participation in that year’s Eurovision in Turin was cancelled, and two months later the country’s two member broadcasters were expelled from the Union.

In 2024 and especially 2025, as the scale of destruction in Gaza became widely known internationally, calls grew for a similar EBU intervention and for Israel to be excluded from Eurovision. So why didn’t it happen? Perhaps because member states assess humanitarian crises differently. But part of the explanation is something else entirely: for some, allowing Israel to participate is seen as an act of resistance rather than complicity.

EBU members are mainly public broadcasters, and the values they share are independence and objective information for citizens. How well they live up to those values is another matter, of course, but these are the principles the EBU represents.

Israel’s broadcaster, KAN, while not free from the structural problems common to many public media outlets worldwide, has nevertheless maintained a degree of independence from the government, something that does not sit well with the current leadership.

For years, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is also on trial for serious corruption charges, has sought greater control over KAN or even its privatization. He has passed laws, cut funding, and replaced or pressured senior officials in an effort to achieve this goal, but without full success. Resistance from the opposition is one reason, but another is the EBU itself, which has made clear that if KAN, or even just its news division, were privatized, it would lose its membership. That would effectively mean Israel’s exclusion from Eurovision.

In Israel, the contest is extremely popular, and that popularity indirectly helps protect one of the country’s few relatively independent media institutions under Netanyahu and his far-right allies.

In 2022, the Russian state broadcasters expelled from the EBU were already seen as extensions of the Kremlin, making their removal relatively straightforward after pressure from member states.

In Israel’s case, the situation is different. Expelling KAN and excluding the country from Eurovision might satisfy many members’ sense of justice, but it could also end up strengthening Netanyahu’s government and its policies.

Is this the right approach from the EBU? Is it justified if, indeed, such reasoning has influenced how it treats Israel’s membership? Or is it another arbitrary judgment of “right” and “wrong” made by institutions that should not be making such calls?

Everyone will have their own view. But whatever criteria are used, reality keeps reminding us that these issues are always more complex and blurred than any simple narrative allows.

And all of this, of course, is yet another burden we carry in our minds and conscience, even as we sit in front of the TV, hoping for harmless songs and colorful, kitschy entertainment, while the world outside continues to unravel.