Israel WILL participate in Eurovision 2026 – Netherlands, Spain and Ireland to boycott
Slovenia and Iceland are also expected to join a boycott of the international song competition after a secret ballot on Israel's participation was not held
Israel will participate in the 2026 Eurovision song contest despite attempts by the broadcasting authorities of some countries to call for their exclusion, with Spain, Ireland and the Netherlands announcing that they will boycott the competition as a result.
In a meeting which took place this afternoon, member countries of the European Broadcasting Union voted to adopt a series of reforms proposed by the organisation last month, designed to address concerns aired by certain broadcasters after Israel’s highly successful showing in the 2025 competition. Israel, represented by 7 October survivor Yuval Raphael, did extremely well in the public vote, and was only beaten into second place after Austria scored highly with the jury vote. As a result of the new rules being accepted, a separate vote on Israel’s participation was not held, despite calls by a number of broadcasting authorities for Israel to be banned.
As a result, Dutch broadcaster AVROTROS, Spain’s RTVE and Ireland’s RTE have announced that they will not be taking part in the 2026 competition, and will not broadcast it.
RTE said: “Following today’s EBU winter general assembly in Geneva at which Israel’s participation in the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest was confirmed, RTE’s position remains unchanged.
“RTE will not participate in the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest, nor will RTE broadcast the competition.”
The Irish broadcaster further stated that the country’s participation would be “unconscionable given the appalling loss of lives in Gaza”.
Slovenia and Iceland are also expected to withdraw from the competition. Of the five countries, only Netherlands has won the contest once in the last 25 years.
Spain’s RTVE had requested a secret ballot on the issue of Israel’s participation, which the EBU had denied.
The Spanish broadcaster said: “The board of directors of RTVE agreed last September that Spain would withdraw from Eurovision if Israel was part of it.”
“This withdrawal also means that RTVE will not broadcast the Eurovision 2026 final… nor the preliminary semi-finals.”
comments