GENEVA: Spain and the Netherlands announced Thursday they are pulling out of next year’s Eurovision Song Contest after organizers decided to allow Israel to compete.
The announcements came after the body that runs Eurovision met to discuss concerns about Israel’s participation, which is opposed by some countries due to its conduct of the war in Gaza.
Dutch broadcaster AVROTROS said that the participation of Israel “is no longer compatible with the responsibility we bear as a public broadcaster.”
Spain’s state broadcaster RTVE said Thursday that the country is pulling out of Eurovision after the body that runs the contest voted to let Israel participate in 2026.
“We would like to express our serious doubts about the participation of Israeli broadcaster KAN in Eurovision 2026,” said RTVE’s Secretary General Alfonso Morales during the European Broadcasting Union’s general assembly.
The pullouts came after members of the European Broadcasting Union, which organizes Eurovision, voted to adopt tougher voting rules in response to allegations that Israel manipulated the vote in favor of their contestant.
The feel-good pop music gala that draws more than 100 million viewers every year has been roiled by the war in Gaza for the past two years.
The EBU European Broadcasting Union, a group of public broadcasters from 56 countries that runs Eurovision, held twice-yearly general assembly, with some countries calling for Israel to be excluded over alleged interference in contest voting and its conduct in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
The EBU said the new rules would strengthen “transparency and trust” and allow all countries, including Israel, to participate.
But Spain and the Netherlands walked out, followed by Ireland.
“Eurovision is becoming a bit of a fractured event,” said Paul Jordan, an expert on the contest known as Dr. Eurovision. “The slogan is ‘United by Music’ ... unfortunately it’s disunited through politics.”
“It’s become quite a messy and toxic situation,” he said.
Divided over politics
The contest, whose 70th edition is scheduled for Vienna in May, pits acts from dozens of nations against one another for the continent’s musical crown.
It strives to put pop before politics, but has repeatedly been embroiled in world events. Russia was expelled in 2022 after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The war in Gaza has been its biggest challenge, with pro-Palestinian protesters demonstrating against Israel outside the last two Eurovision contests in Basel, Switzerland, in May and Malmo, Sweden, in 2024.
The war in Gaza has also exposed rifts in the European broadcasting world. Austria, which is set to host the competition after Viennese singer JJ won this year with “Wasted Love,” supports Israel’s participation. Germany, too, is said to back Israel.
Iceland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Spain are among the countries that have threatened to sit out the contest, if Israel is allowed to take part.
Opponents of Israel’s participation criticize the conduct of the war in Gaza, which has left more than 70,000 people dead, according to the territory’s Health Ministry, which operates under the Hamas-run government and whose detailed records are viewed as generally reliable by the international community. A number of experts, including those commissioned by a UN body, have said that Israel’s offensive amounts to genocide.
Israel’s government has repeatedly defended its campaign as a response to the attack by Hamas-led militants that started the war on Oct. 7, 2023. The militants killed around 1,200 people — mostly civilians — in the attack and took 251 hostage.
Complex voting process
Israel also has faced allegations of interference in the voting process in Eurovision.
It’s not clear whether a decrease in violence in Gaza, where a US-brokered ceasefire is holding, or EBU plans to change voting processes to guard against political interference will be enough to placate some broadcasters, which are on the fence over the issue.
EBU said that officials at Thursday’s meeting will be asked to consider that package of new measures, including reducing the number of votes per payment method, and a return of “professional juries” to the semifinals.
A vote on participation will only take place if member broadcasters decide those steps aren’t sufficient to protect the “neutrality and impartiality” of the contest, the broadcasting union said in an email on Wednesday.
Members have until mid-December to confirm their participation next year, and a final list will be announced by Christmas, it said.
Possible scenarios
Eurovision expert Dean Vuletic said that a boycott by any EU member country would be significant, because they are “not dictatorships” and are meant, like Israel, to share values of democracy, human rights and diversity.
“It would be the biggest boycott of Eurovision ever. There have been boycotts in the past, but they have been usually bilateral,” said Vuletic, author of “Postwar Europe and the Eurovision Song Contest.”
The fallout of a boycott could have implications for viewership and money at a time when many broadcasters are under financial pressure from government funding cuts and the advent of social media.
The countries walking away include some big names in the Eurovision world.
Spain is one of the “Big Five” large-market countries that contribute the most to the contest. Ireland has won seven times, a record it shares with Sweden.
The controversy over Israel’s 2026 participation threatens to overshadow the return next year of three countries — Bulgaria, Moldova and Romania — after periods of absence because of financial and artistic reasons.
“There are no winners here. Regardless of what happens — whether Israel is in or out, whether countries stay or go — it’s not what Eurovision should be. It’s meant to be joyous and about bringing people together despite our politics,” Jordan said. “Unfortunately it’s become, I think, a bit of a political football.”