Israel allowed to participate in Eurovision: several countries declare boycott

The European Broadcasting Union has allowed Israel to participate in Eurovision 2026 in Vienna.

This became known from a statement on the EMS website.

There was no separate vote on Israel, but a majority of members at the Geneva meeting agreed that there was no need for a further vote on participation and the competition should proceed as planned.

The Guardian writes that Ireland, Spain, the Netherlands and Slovenia have already announced their boycott of the contest. The decision on whether to participate will be made on December 10 by Iceland, which has also previously spoken out in favor of a boycott because of Israel.

Who was previously not allowed to Eurovision?

To participate in the contest, a country must be a member of the European Broadcasting Union. Membership is currently suspended for Belarus (2021) for human rights violations and Russia (2022) for full-scale aggression against Ukraine.

In 2009, Georgia was barred from the contest in Moscow. The group Stephane & 3G were set to sing the song “We donʼt wanna Put in” (a reference to the surname “Putin”) nine months after the Russo-Georgian war. The Eurovision Song Contest urged the country to change the song because of its politicization, but Georgia refused.

Lebanon was scheduled to make its Eurovision debut in 2005. However, the country was disqualified because its television station was planning to turn off the broadcast during the performance of the Israeli contestant.

In 2024, Dutch representative Joost Klein was disqualified from the final. He made a threatening gesture towards a camerawoman because he did not want to be filmed offstage. The Netherlands disagreed with the decision and refused to announce their juryʼs scores in the final.

Countries have also been disqualified for technical reasons: for example, in 2016, Romania was not allowed due to the debts of its public television channel.

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