Madrid (AFP) – Spain’s public broadcaster said on Friday it has called for a “debate” over Israel’s participation in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest in Switzerland due to “concerns” over the situation in war-torn Gaza.
RTVE has sent a letter to the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which manages the event, “requesting a debate on the participation of Israeli public television (KAN)” in the contest, the Spanish public broadcaster said in a statement.
The Swiss city of Basel will host the glitzy annual extravaganza – one of the world’s biggest live television events which involves countries from Europe to Australia – at the St. Jakobshalle indoor arena, with the semi-finals on May 13 and 15, and the final on May 17.
Public broadcasters of participating nations select the candidate which will represent them, so the absence of KAN would mean there is no Israeli performer at this year’s event.
RTVE said it “reiterates its support” for Eurovision “but also acknowledges the concerns that the situation in Gaza and the participation of KAN public television are raising within Spanish civil society”.
“It would be appropriate for the EBU to recognise the existence of this debate and provide a forum for discussion between EBU member broadcasters on the participation of Israeli public television,” the statement added.
Never understood Eurovision. But what i never understood even more is why there is a middle eastern nazi state participating in European song competition. Anyone knows how did they get here?
Because some of their broadcasters are part of the European Broadcasting Union. Neighbouring countries like Jordan and Lebanon are part of the EBU too, but others like Morocco and Algeria are part of the EBU as well, and as such can also compete. They rarely or never have though (in part because of Israel’s involvement, but sometimes also more puritan reasons like nudity).
On top of all the things already mentioned, Israeli company Moroccon Oil is also a big sponsor of the event.
~The same reason Australia got there: It’s a settler colony built by Europeans that culturally has little in common with its neighbors. Israel also has the factor of being hated by all its neighbors for obvious reasons that westerners until recently have been able to ignore.~
Edit: Completely wrong, see below.
Not quite; the whole mediterranean region is allowed to compete, because it lies in the European broadcasting area. The Arab countries usually boycot the contest, because of Israel’s participation.
That makes sense.
How many other non European countries take part in Eurovision?
Australia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia. Morocco has also participated once, and Lebanon was set to compete at one point, but withdrew because they couldn’t broadcast the Israeli performance.
Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan are a little borderline. But I’ll give you its fucking weird for Australia.
It’s a cultural thing
they’re not culturally similar I tell you
Pretty sure by cultural he just means mostly White
I’m honestly surprised people watch it in the first place. I can’t boycott it more than I already do
no way Israel will be excluded from the genocide song contest
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The booing will happen, but 0 points won’t. Take last year, massive general public vote despite all the booing and protesting.
They won’t get nil points, they got shitloads of points last year.
Which I still find suspicious with all the cutting and muting the EBU seemed to do
You can’t vote against someone in Eurovision. They actually end up dominating the televote because those sympathetic to Israel make a point to vote for them even if they don’t care about Eurovision.
I’m sorry but that’s Germany’s job already.
