Ireland, Spain, the Netherlands and Slovenia will boycott next year’s Eurovision Song Contest, after Israel was allowed to compete.

They were among a number of countries who had called for Israel to be excluded over the humanitarian toll of the war in Gaza, and accusations of unfair voting practices.

Despite calls for a vote on Israel’s participation, members instead approved a new set of rules intended to protect the integrity of the contest.

Ireland’s national broadcaster RTE said it felt that its “participation remains unconscionable given the appalling loss of lives in Gaza and the humanitarian crisis there which continues to put the lives of so many civilians at risk.”

In a statement, Dutch broadcaster Avrotros said that “participation under the current circumstances is incompatible with the public values ​​that are essential to us”.

Spanish broadcaster RTVE added: “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.”

Continue reading here - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cde6d8wyp79o

  • Phoenixz@lemmy.ca
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    9 hours ago

    So European countries are dropping out while the non European Israel can continue.

    Mmmmm, one wonders how that happened. One also wonders if these people that decided to boycott Eurovision over this are antisemitesor just people with a heart.

    Fuck the Israeli government.

    Jail Netanyahu, retreat all your forces back into Israel, allow an independent Palestinian state, pay reparations to Palestine state, beg all Palestinians forgiveness for your 5+ decades crimes, then beg the world for forgiveness for calling everyone that protested their crimes and antisemite, and then maybe maybe maybe they should be allowed back into the world.