Boycotting Israel could kill Eurovision

What exactly is the point of Eurovision? It can’t be about the music. Britain, the nation that gifted the world the Beatles, David Bowie and the Spice Girls, has been scraping the bottom of the scoreboard for years – thanks to a string of forgettable, frankly embarrassing entries that wouldn’t have looked out of place at a boozy holiday camp open-mic night.

The UK hasn’t been alone in putting forward dire entries, but perhaps that then has always been the point. Much to the delight of the millions who watch and feast on Eurovision’s glorious banquet of kitsch and camp – a ding-a-dong smorgasbord where spectacle is compulsory and, for many countries, talent distinctly optional. Eurovision has endured as a place where countries built bridges in one of the world’s few, ahem, ‘artistic’ spaces. Somewhere to join hands, whip off skirts and celebrate what passed for music amidst pantomime costumes, big hair, and dad-dancing choreography.

Now, the wind has changed direction: Dutch broadcaster AVROTROS, Spain’s RTVE, Ireland’s RTE, and Slovenia’s RTV said yesterday that they will not participate in the 2026 contest because of Israel’s presence in the competition. It follows the European Broadcasting Union’s general assembly declaration yesterday that the Jewish state would be allowed to compete.

It is vital to condemn the action of the boycotters. Since they risk ushering in a new dawn for Eurovision – as a platform to weaponise hatred and foster the kind of toxic global hostility that has been anathema to the competition’s purpose since its inception in 1956. Eurovision’s purpose has been to use music as a unifying cultural tool. No longer.

The actions of Ireland, Slovenia, Spain and the Netherlands risk turning Eurovision into an instrument of hostility, hardening anti-Israel sentiment. Inevitably, the Jew-haters will feel emboldened. So, too, the jihadist extremists who openly call for the country’s destruction and who practice vile acts of antisemitism. As own goals go, it is as spectacular as it is shocking.

There has, of course, always been a bit of political creep at Eurovision – not least the inevitable Greece-and-Cyprus mutual back-scratch, which, when following the voting, Terry Wogan would predict year after year with his signature chuckle and theatrical sigh.

Paradoxically, if any country has embodied Eurovision’s spirit of apolitical inclusivity, it is Israel. Especially thanks to Dana International’s 1998 win. This was the first openly transgender victor of the contest. Broadcast to millions, it was a powerful symbol of diversity and LGBTQ+ visibility.

Even after the grotesque attacks of October 7th, Israel resisted making political capital of the country’s sorrow. Last year, it chose to field as its entrant Yuval Raphael, a survivor of the Nova Festival massacre – ironically an event celebrating music, peace, and togetherness – who bravely took to the stage not to rage, but to sing about hope and resilience. Raphael spent harrowing hours on October 7 hiding among dead bodies in a shelter as Hamas terrorists speckled the building with grenades.

Her courageous performance should have been a reminder to all countries, whatever their views on Israeli politics, that light and positivity can push their way through the darkest moments.

It hasn’t landed. Instead, those who choose to boycott Eurovision say their withdrawal is a protest at Israel’s war in Gaza. Blithely – wilfully? – they turn a blind eye to how the conflict began; how Israel was dragged into a war it did not want when, on October 7, more than a thousand were slaughtered, and around 250 innocent people taken hostage. Determinedly, the boycotters seem to refuse to see that Israel was never at war with the Palestinian people. Had Hamas laid down its arms and returned the hostages, the fighting would have ended.

But the details, it seems, do not matter in the global diversion of demonising Israel. Most strikingly – and laughably – the Slovenian broadcaster dismissed last year’s Israeli entry as ‘political’, as though it were anything other than an expression of resilience and hope. Were they watching the same show?

That these countries want to expunge the world’s only Jewish state from the contest has a dark reminder from history. In the years leading up to the Holocaust, the burning of Jewish books and the exclusion of Jews from theatres and other cultural gatherings were built on similar logic: exclusion and ostracism by identity. To boycott a country wholesale is to effectively declare that everyone from that nation should be shunned. It is how hatred festers. It is not what Eurovision was meant to be about.

Of course, the lazy argument has been to align Israel’s boycott with Russia’s Eurovision ban as a convenient soundbite to justify the boycott. It is a fallacious comparison. Russia was excluded because its government launched an unprovoked war in Ukraine. Its tightly-controlled state broadcasters do not have an independent cultural voice separate from the Kremlin. By contrast, Israel’s entries and its broadcaster, KAN, operate independently of government policy.

We should applaud that despite the noise, the Jewish state stands firm and is going full steam ahead preparing for Eurovision 2026. As Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, said: ‘I hope that the competition will remain one that champions culture, music, friendship between nations, and cross-border cultural understanding.’

Sadly, such words won’t strike a chord with those who now boycott the song contest. If others follow suit and their actions catalyse the demise of Eurovision then the only winners will be bigotry and hatred. Nul points for peace.