The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) announced on Thursday that it would allow Israel to stay in the Eurovision Song Contest – an expected outcome following Israel’s signing of a peace agreement to end the war against the genocidal terrorist organization Hamas in Gaza.
The EBU held a long-awaited meeting on Thursday to discuss the protocol for the 2026 edition of Eurovision, the 70th iteration of the post-World War II global event. Since the Hamas invasion of Israel on October 7, 2023, the EBU has faced tremendous pressure from pro-Hamas protesters and left-wing governments in the contest to oust Israel, which escalated this year after Israel’s contestant, singer Yuval Raphael, came in second place and won the popular vote (the Eurovision winner is determined by a combination of popular votes and expert jury votes).
Poorer-performing countries claimed Israel had “rigged” the vote by galvanizing global support in light of the war, some claiming the rules needed reform to prevent governments from openly campaigning and others claiming Israel committed fraud. The EBU has denied any allegations that the results of the 2024 or 2025 Eurovision Song Contests were tampered with, but announced a meeting to discuss the rules of the game in December and address these concerns.
That meeting occurred on Thursday. Participants voted to amend the rules for competing countries but rejected calls to hold a vote on whether to expel Israel or not. According to the Times of Israel, 738 participants voted not to hold a vote on expelling countries, compared to 264 calling for the vote and 120 abstaining. The vote marked a significant win for supporters of keeping Israel in the contest.
“This vote means that all EBU members who wish to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 and agree to comply with the new rules are eligible to take part,” the EBU stated plainly following the vote.
The Times of Israel noted that parties agreed not to vote on expelling countries in exchange for major changes to the contest, including:
[V]otes per person will be capped at 10, rather than 20; the EBU will “discourage” governments from running public campaigns for their entrants, and bar contestants from coordinating with such campaigns; and professional juries will be brought back for the semifinal rounds, in conjunction with the popular vote.
Eurovision is the world’s largest musical event, viewed last year by 166 million people around the world. It invites the public broadcasters who belong to the EBU to submit original songs performed by local artists to compete against each other. While most participating nations are in Europe, the criteria to compete includes a requirement to belong to the EBU, not to be in Europe – which allows countries such as Israel, Azerbaijan, and Australia to be part of the contest. The EBU estimated that 100,000 people attended the contest in person, including semi-final and jury performances.
Israel has competed in Eurovision since 1973 and has won the contest four times, most recently in 2018. While antisemitic and pro-Hamas activists have attempted for years to oust Israel from the contest, the leftist movement against Israeli artists gained significant traction after October 7. Leftists argued that the state of war required Israel to be removed, citing the expulsion of Russia and Belarus from the contest following the invasion of Ukraine in 2022. In the latter case, however, Russia invaded Ukraine with support from Belarus; Israel itself was invaded by a terrorist entity in 2023.
The winner of the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest, Austrian opera singer JJ (Johannes Pietsch), was among the most prominent voices calling for the expulsion of Israel.
“It is very disappointing to see Israel still participating in the contest. I would like the next Eurovision to be held in Vienna and without Israel,” he told the Spanish newspaper El País.
Austria, as the winner and host, did choose Vienna as the host city for 2026, but announced that it would boycott Eurovision if Israel was not allowed to compete. Reports suggested that the broadcasters in Germany and Ukraine, the latter one of the winningest countries in Eurovision history, also stated they would reconsider their participation in the event that the EBU expelled Israel.
The EBU announced, following the extreme popularity of Israel in the 2025 contest, an “extraordinary” meeting scheduled for November to vote on expelling the country from the song contest. Experts predicted at the time that, given pressure from large financial contributors such as Spain’s RTVE, the vote would have resulted in Israel’s expulsion. In October, however, President Donald Trump and his team brokered a peace agreement to end the hostilities in Gaza and free the last remaining Israeli hostages held by Hamas and its allied jihadist gangs. The EBU announced shortly thereafter that, directly due to the peace agreement, the meeting to remove Israel was canceled.
“In the light of recent developments in the Middle East, the EBU’s executive board (meeting on October 13) agreed there was a clear need to organise an open and in-person discussion among its members on the issue of participation in the Eurovision Song Contest 2026,” the EBU explained. “Consequently, the board agreed to put the issue on the agenda of its ordinary winter general assembly, which will be taking place in December, rather than organising an extraordinary session in advance.”
As a result of Israel’s return to the contest, four countries with poor performance records in the contest have announced they will boycott Eurovision 2026: Spain, the Netherlands, Ireland, and Slovenia. Spain is a member of the “Big 5,” countries that contribute the most financially to the contest and thus always receive a position in the Grand Final without having to compete in the first round. Despite this, Spain’s modern track record in the contest is exceedingly poor.
The departure of the Netherlands is notable due to its protagonist role in one of the largest controversies of Eurovision 2024. That year, its competitor, the electronic artist Joost Klein, was disqualified shortly after obtaining a spot in the Grand Final over an “incident” involving a cameraperson. A flurry of rumors, fueled by Klein’s own disrespectful behavior towards Israeli contestant Eden Golan, accused the Israeli broadcaster KAN of manufacturing his expulsion. The EBU emphasized, however, that the incident had nothing to do with Israel or any other country’s delegation. Reports suggested that a “female member” of the crew made a complaint, suggesting Klein had threatened her, resulting in a police investigation.
Klein ultimately did not face police charges in host country Sweden but was not allowed to compete for the championship. He subsequently released a song titled “United by Music” – the official slogan of the Eurovision Song Contest – in which he disparaged the EBU and expressed ambivalence towards the Ukraine invasion and the American 2024 presidential election, among other issues.
Ireland has also been a relatively poor performer in modern Eurovision editions despite holding more titles than any other country except Sweden, which has also won seven times. Its most popular recent entry was the 2024 song “Doomsday Blue” by “non-binary” pagan singer “Bambie Thug,” who also prominently opposed Israel’s participation in the contest.
The EBU announced that the full list of competitors in the 70th edition of Eurovision will be revealed by Christmas. At press time four countries have confirmed a boycott over Israel, and three countries that were absent in 2025 – Bulgaria, Moldova, and Romania – have announced their return.
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