Dozens of former Eurovision participants call to bar Israel from 2025 competition
EBU director rejects letter, says contest promotes ‘inclusion through music,’ as Yuval Raphael holds her first rehearsal in Basel, Switzerland ahead of next week’s show
Amy Spiro is a reporter and writer with The Times of Israel
Dozens of former Eurovision participants signed a letter published Tuesday demanding that the European Broadcasting Union bar Israel from taking part in this year’s competition, citing its war against Hamas in Gaza.
The letter, a week before the contest is set to kick off in Basel, Switzerland, will have no effect on this year’s competition. The EBU has consistently rejected calls to boycott Israel both ahead of last year’s contest in Malmo, Sweden, and throughout the past year.
Israel’s contestant, Yuval Raphael, arrived in Basel on Monday and took part in her first on-stage rehearsal on Tuesday afternoon. She will compete in the second semifinal of the show next Thursday evening, with the emotional power ballad “New Day Will Rise.”
The signatories to the letter accuse Kan, Israel’s public broadcaster and an EBU member, of being “complicit in Israel’s genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza and the decades-long regime of apartheid and military occupation against the entire Palestinian people.”
In a statement to The Times of Israel, Martin Green, the director of the competition, said that while the EBU understands “the concerns and deeply held views,” its goal is to maintain “a universal event that promotes connections, diversity and inclusion through music.”
Green added that its members are public broadcasters, not governments, that the EBU has consistently supported Kan “against the threat from being privatized or shut down by the Israeli government,” and that its position to include Israel is “aligned with other international organizations.”
Kan did not directly respond to the letter.
It was signed by more than 70 past participants from 12 countries, although that figure includes a number of backup singers, songwriters and dancers. The signatories include three past winners — Portugal’s Salvador Sobral, who won in 2017, Charlie McGettigan, who won for Ireland in 1994 and Fernando Tordo, who won in 1973 representing Portugal.
Some of the signatories came from Bosnia and Herzegovina, which hasn’t participated since 2016, and Turkey, which dropped out of the contest in 2013. Only one contestant from last year, Norway’s Gate, signed the letter, as did the UK’s Mae Muller, who competed in 2023 and is Jewish.
“Last year, we were appalled that the EBU allowed Israel to participate while it continued its genocide in Gaza,” the letter reads, calling the 2024 contest “the most politicized, chaotic and unpleasant in the competition’s history.”
Israel accused a number of fellow competitors of bullying and ostracizing Eden Golan during last year’s show, while several contestants flung similar complaints back at members of Israel’s delegation. Large protests were held outside the arena in Malmo, and security was unusually high. Conspiracy theorists have tried to blame Israel for the disqualification of the Netherlands’ Joost Klein, but the EBU has maintained there was no connection.
The letter also points to the exclusion of Russia from the competition after its invasion of Ukraine, claiming a “double standard” when it comes to Israel.
The EBU has repeatedly rejected the comparison, pointing out that Russia was excluded after its public broadcaster violated the organization’s guidelines and its independence as a public media outlet.
For decades, the Eurovision has positioned itself as a non-political contest, but geopolitics has undeniably filtered into the proceedings most years. This year, public broadcasters from Slovenia, Spain and Iceland have called on the EBU to reconsider Israel’s participation, to no avail.
The EBU unveiled a strict new code of conduct ahead of this year’s competition, barring contestants and anyone accredited to take part in the event from any public political comments as well as from bullying or harassment of other competitors.
With just days until the official Eurovision events kick off, contestants from all 37 countries have begun rehearsing for the show, descending on the arena in Basel.
After months of silence, Israel teased some details of Raphael’s slated performance, noting that she will be alone on stage, with no backup dancers, dressed in all black and positioned next to an enormous climbable chandelier.
The staging will also include a balcony that Kan said is meant to be a “symbolic nod” to the famous image of Zionist visionary Theodor Herzl looking out from a balcony in — where else — Basel, Switzerland, during the Fifth Zionist Congress in 1901.
“Everyone around us can do whatever they want, and to protest, we’re focused on the song, on Yuval’s moving performance,” said Yoav Tzafir, the head of Israel’s delegation and the director, in a video statement released by Kan on Tuesday. “The first rehearsal was wonderful, we’re proud of her.”
Raphael, a survivor of the Hamas massacre at the Nova rave outside Gaza on October 7, 2023, is slotted for the second semifinal of the competition, on May 15, and is considered a shoe-in to advance to the grand final on May 17.
Last year, Israel finished in fifth place overall, and the Jewish state has won the competition four times — in 2018 with Netta Barzilai’s “Toy,” in 1998 with Dana International’s “Diva,” and back-to-back wins in 1978 and 1979 with “A-Ba-Ni-Bi” and “Hallelujah.”
The Times of Israel Community.