Laura Harman
Published December 4, 2025 6:07pm
Updated December 4, 2025 11:56pm
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Counties are pulling out of Eurovision (Picture: MENAHEM KAHANA / AFP)
Key Points
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- Ireland, Spain, and others will boycott Eurovision 2026 over Israel’s participation
- Spain’s withdrawal impacts the ‘big five,’ possibly leaving only four guaranteed finalists
- The EBU has allowed Israel to participate, despite excluding Russia in the past.
Ireland, Spain and the Netherlands are set to boycott next year’s Eurovision Song Contest, after it was decided that Israel was allowed to compete.
Israel’s participation in the competition has been under question for some time, with several countries calling for Israel to be excluded given the current genocide.
After it was decided officially that Israel would be allowed to compete in the 2026 competition, several countries have announced they are boycotting.
In a statement, Dutch broadcaster Avrotros said that ‘participation under the current circumstances is incompatible with the public values that are essential to us.’
Spanish broadcaster RTVE added: ‘The board of directors of RTVE agreed last September that Spain would withdraw from Eurovision if Israel was part of it.
This withdrawal also means that RTVE will not broadcast the Eurovision 2026 final… nor the preliminary semi-finals.’
There have been protests against Israeli participation in the Eurovision Song Contest for a long time (Picture: REUTERS)
The next competition is set for May 2026 (Picture: AP)
RTE, Ireland’s leading broadcaster, also announced that Ireland would not be participating.
A number of other countries have followed suit, with RTV Slovenia saying Belgium, Iceland and Slovenia will not take part.
Spain has been part of the integral ‘big five’ in the competition (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom) and the country’s decision to not take part will mean that only the ‘big four’ will likely compete.
The big five are the five countries guaranteed to qualify for the Grand Final. This is because their broadcasters make the largest financial contributions to the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the organisation that runs the contest.
Spanish outlets have highlighted that the EBU did not actually vote on whether Israel should be allowed to compete in a crucial general assembly in Geneva.
The EBU only put to a vote measures to prevent political interference and fraudulent votes, and upon their approval, it understood that the matter was settled.
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By avoiding a discussion about Israel’s position in the competition, it was understood that the country would be allowed to compete.
Why has there been a boycott?
Despite the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) banning Russia after its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, Israel remained in the line-up, leading many to boycott the competition.
Protests in the 2025 host city of Malmö, Sweden, became so unmanageable that a ban on any country’s flag that wasn’t participating – including Palestine’s – was introduced, a move they publicly rowed back on.
Many people feel that excluding Russia but not Israel feels inconsistent with Eurovision’s aim of uniting people across borders and cultures.
The war in Gaza is not the only reason for the country to be ousted, as there have also been accusations of unfair voting practices.
Broadcasters from Ireland, Spain, Finland, and numerous other countries requested that the voting system be examined after Israel inexplicably topped the public vote.
The contest’s director, Martin Green, told the BBC that the voting was checked and was indeed valid.
Israel joined the competition in 1973 (Picture: AP)
The Eurovision Song Contest 2026 is set to be the 70th edition of the European show.
It is scheduled to consist of two semi-finals and a final in May, held at Wiener Stadthalle in Vienna, Austria.
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It is thought that more countries may announce they are boycotting the contest in the weeks to come, with Iceland set to announce their final decision on participation on Wednesday.
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