Slovenia public broadcaster 1st to demand banning Israel from Eurovision over Gaza war

Slovenia’s public broadcaster becomes the first to demand Israel be barred from the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest over the war in Gaza.

The management of the RTV public broadcaster voted last week to immediately call for the European Broadcasting Union to ban Israel from participating in next year’s competition in Switzerland, Slovenian media report. The network’s council, however, voted down two other resolutions, which called for Slovenia to back out if Israel is allowed to participate; or for the country to black out the Israeli performance during the show.

The EBU steadfastly refused calls earlier this year to bar Israel from the 2024 competition in Malmo, Sweden, noting that the contest is between public broadcasters, not governments and that Israel remained fully eligible to participate. Riding a wave of backlash to the boycott calls, Israel’s Eden Golan received the second-highest vote total from the public and finished 5th overall with her song “Hurricane.”

The EBU, which runs the contest, has indicated that it will not accede to calls for Israel to be banned next year. The body warned this week, however, that shutting or privatizing the Israeli public broadcaster Kan could put its future participation in the contest in jeopardy.