ISRAEL’S entry in Eurovision 2024 has been met with strong opposition, with many calling for fans to boycott this year’s contest.
Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the competition sees musicians from dozens of countries perform an original song. Judges and audiences from competing countries then cast votes to determine a winner.
Israel is not the only nation from geographically outside the boundaries of Europe to compete, with Australia having previously taken part, for example.
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So, how did Israel come to be included in the competition?
Why does Israel compete in Eurovision?
The EBU is an alliance of 113 public media organisations that primarily reside within the European Broadcasting Area.
Members are given access to a range of content such as exclusive sports rights, news, music and children’s shows.
Entry is therefore not necessarily determined by geographical location, with Israel first entering the EBU in 1957 and making its debut at the Eurovision event in 1973.
Up until 2017, Israel was granted access to Eurovision via its public broadcaster, the Israel Broadcasting Authority (IBA), which was a member of the EBU.
From 2018, the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation (KAN) has taken charge of the country’s entries after succeeding the IBA as national broadcaster and representing Israel’s membership in the EBU.
Has Israel ever won Eurovision?
Israel has won the Eurovision Song Contest a total of four times – in 1978 and 1979, as well as in 1998 and 2018.
Eden Golan will represent Israel in 2024, although was only allowed to compete after agreeing to modify lyrics from her original track October Rain – widely understood to be a reference to the Hamas attacks on October 7.
What is Eurovision’s stance on Israel?
Competition organisers have thus far resisted mounting calls to exclude Israel from the contest.
It says that its governing bodies reviewed the participants for the 2024 contest and agreed KAN met all the competition rules.
In a statement it said: “As a non-political organisation, the EBU’s role is to support public service broadcasters throughout Europe and the Middle East.”
It has also rejected suggestions of double standards after disqualifying Russia from the contest in 2022 following the invasion of Ukraine.
“The Israeli public service broadcaster has been a member of the EBU for over 60 years,” organisers said.
“The Russian public service broadcasters had their EBU membership suspended in 2022 due to consistent breaches of membership obligations and the violation of public service media values.”
Thousands of pro-Palestine protesters took to the streets of Malmo on Thursday to show their support for Gaza and condemn the decision to include Israel.
Eurovision has said it supports people’s right to protest peacefully.
“The EBU is a firm advocate for freedom of speech and the right for people to express their deeply held views and opinions,” the organisation said on its website.
“We understand that people may wish to make their voices heard and support the right of those who wish to demonstrate peacefully.”
UK response
Rishi Sunak (below) has said he believes the protests taking place in Sweden against Israel’s participation are “wrong”.
The Prime Minister’s spokesperson said: "The Prime Minister thinks that these protests are wrong and some of the scenes we’ve seen have been outrageous.
“Just as we share the deep concern of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, and we raise this regularly, when it comes to this debate around Eurovision in these protests, we are incredibly mindful of the Israelis and also Jewish people around the world who love Eurovision and their feelings at seeing this in the aftermath of what was an atrocious terror attack, and while hostages are still being held by Hamas, and he would urge people to consider this when repeating these unfair calls for a boycott.
“He thinks it is wrong and unfair to call for a boycott of their act. We remain steadfast in our support for Israel and its right to self defence and its right to prevent a terror attack such as we saw from ever happening again.
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"At the same time, we continue to urge further action on aid in response to a growing humanitarian crisis.
“There is always the right for peaceful protest, that’s part of democracy here and around the world, but in terms of the prime minister’s opinion, these scenes and whether it is right to call for a boycott of their acts, no – he thinks that’s wrong.”
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