The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) says the Eurovision Song Contest isn't political, and argues that Russia's ban in 2022 was "fundamentally different".
Pressure is mounting on European broadcasters to boycott Israel's participation in the Eurovision Song Contest because of the war in Gaza.
Flagging Russia's earlier exclusion from the competition, the Swedish musicians said it was their "duty" as cultural practitioners to "bring about change and counter artwashing".
In Norway last month, semi-naked protesters knelt in the snow in front of the country's public broadcaster NRK to also demand Israel's exclusion from Eurovision.
And in Spain, the leader of the left-wing party Podemos, Ione Belarra, has called on the Spanish Congress to debate the removal of Israel from the competition as part of "a pressure tactic to halt the genocide against Palestinian people".
She has registered a non-legal proposal to request the debate, which if approved would urge the Spanish government to "position itself clearly against Israel's participation in the Eurovision Song Contest".
The EBU has also said Russia's ban resulted from "persistent breaches of membership obligations and the violation of public service media values" by Russian broadcasters.
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I dont think so, as a German many people dont think that what Israel is doing is right, the government just doesnt want to be (unrightfully) called a nazi by Israel.
As long as the institutions in charge can claim they couldnt do anything about it I wouldnt expect them to fight it too much.
Yes it will. Voices critical of Israel and calling out Israeli crimes in the occupied areas and now in the war against Gaza are crucial to changing opinion in western countries. And a changing opinion in western countries puts pressure on western governments to stop helping Israeli crimes and start providing adequate humanitarian support and to start working towards the end of the occupation and equal rights of the Palestinians.
US and Europe provide cover for Israel to act with total impunity. The only thing left is boycotting them to show them what the world actually thinks of their genocide. Israel's vanity is that it is a democratic Western country . They need to face the consequences by becoming a pariah state.