Kan public broadcaster rebuffs calls to bow out of Eurovision over boycott threats

The director of Israel’s public broadcaster on Monday rejected calls for it to drop out of next year’s Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna, after several countries threatened to boycott the annual competition if Israel is not barred.

“There is no reason why Israel should not continue to be a significant part of this cultural event, which cannot become political,” said Golan Yochpaz, the CEO of Kan, at an event launching the network’s new content for this fall.

Yochpaz pointed out that since the current Israel Public Broadcasting Corporation was established in 2017, “Israel is one of the most successful participants in the Eurovision contest — in the past seven years its songs and representatives have finished in 5th, 3rd, 2nd and 1st place.”

His comments were the first public response by Kan to the growing number of countries threatening to withdraw from the competition if Israel is allowed to participate, amid widespread global criticism of the ongoing war in Gaza.

So far, the Netherlands and Ireland have said they will not take part if Israel is allowed to, while Spain, Slovenia, Belgium and Iceland have threatened the same.

According to a report from the Ynet news site on Sunday, Eurovision organizers hinted to Kan — Israel’s representative to the European Broadcasting Union, which organizes the annual contest — that Israel should either temporarily drop out of the contest or perform under a neutral flag to avoid being barred entirely. Neither Kan nor the EBU confirmed the report.

The EBU held a meeting in London in July in which Israel’s participation next year was discussed, but the union declined to vote on the matter then, pushing off the decision until later this year. The EBU said at the time that it would consult with members and experts before issuing a full report this fall, ahead of the next organization-wide meeting slated for December.

Ahead of the 2024 and 2025 competitions, the EBU faced heavy pressure from a number of countries to bar Israel from the competition, but it refused to do so, saying that the Eurovision is a contest among public broadcasters, not governments. Some public broadcasters aired anti-Israel protest messages before and during the broadcasts of the contest.

In 2024, Israel’s Eden Golan finished 5th overall in the competition, and second in the popular vote, and in 2025 Yuval Raphael ended up in second place overall after winning the popular vote — sparking allegations of voter fraud, which the EBU dismissed.

As of now, Israel is among 22 countries that have expressed their interest in participating in the 2026 contest in Austria, but several countries have said they would not make a final decision on their participation until after the assembly in December.

International pressure continues to mount on the Israeli government to end the nearly two-year war that was sparked by Hamas’s invasion and massacre in Israel on October 7, 2023, and to urgently address the humanitarian crisis there.

The pressure has recently increased in the entertainment industry, with several open letters signed by prominent figures from the worlds of cinema, music and literature calling for an end to the war and a boycott of Israeli organizations.

Agencies and Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.