Eurovision to vote Israel’s entry amid threats of boycott

The European Union Broadcasting (EBU) will hold an excellent general meeting in November to decide whether Israel can compete in the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest, the organizers confirmed on Friday, as calls are developing to exclude the country for the war in Gaza.

EBU spokesman Dave Goodman said members would vote on the internet for whether Kan, Israel’s public broadcasting body, should remain eligible. It will require an “absolute majority” to pass an exclusion.

Several broadcasting agencies, including those from Ireland, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Spain, threatened to boycott competition if Israel is not banned. Spain is one of Eurovision’s so -called “Big Five” sponsors, along with France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom, which guarantees its influence on the competition.

The forthcoming decision has made Eurovision into one of its deepest crises, analysts say. “This is one of the biggest crises that Eurovision has ever encountered because it is able to really pinch the section within the organization,” said Dean Vuletic, a historian of the competition.

He warned that the attitude could divide the broadcasting bodies into opposing blocks – a supportive Israel, the other that requires his exclusion. Germany and Austria have expressed support for Israel’s ongoing participation, while other major broadcasting agencies, including the BBC, have not yet taken a stand.

Vuletic compares the current turmoil with previous suspensions: Yugoslavia in the 1990s under the United Nations sanctions, Belarus in 2021 to suppress the media’s freedoms and Russia in 2022 after the invasion of Ukraine.

Austrian Foreign Minister Beate Meinl-Reisinger warned against the politicization of the competition, urging European counterparts to seek solutions for Israeli-Gaza conflict without turning Eurovision into a “a means of sanctions”.

The 2026 competition is scheduled for May in Vienna, after Austria’s victory this year in Basel with JJ’s song “Sasted Love”. Eurovision, often called the pop music Olympics, attracts participation from all over Europe and beyond and has greatly reflected political tensions alongside musical rivalry. The war in Gaza began after Hamas’ attack on October 7, 2023, which killed 1,200 people in Israel, has since called for more than 65,000 Palestinian lives, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.