Ireland to boycott Eurovision 2026 if Israel participates

Ireland have announced that they will boycott Eurovision 2026 “if the participation of Israel goes ahead”.

Irish broadcaster RTÉ released a statement saying that at the General Assembly of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the organizers of the Eurovision Song Contest, in July, “a number of EBU members raised concerns about the participation of Israel in the Eurovision Song Contest”.

The statement read: “It is RTÉ’s position that Ireland will not take part in the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest, if the participation of Israel goes ahead, and the final decision regarding Ireland’s participation will be made once the EBU’s decision is made”.

The broadcaster added: “RTÉ feels that Ireland’s participation would be unconscionable given the ongoing and appalling loss of lives in Gaza. RTÉ is also deeply concerned by the targeted killing of journalists in Gaza, the denial of access to international journalists to the territory, and the plight of the remaining hostages.”

This follows comments made by Spanish Culture Minister Ernest Urtasun regarding Spain’s participation in Eurovision next year.

Earlier this week, Euronews Culture reported that Spain also threatened to withdraw from the contest if Israel is kept on the line-up. “I don’t think we can normalise Israel’s participation in international events as if nothing is happening,” said Urtasun during an interview on La hora de La 1 on TVE. “It is not an individual artist who participates but someone who participates on behalf of that country’s citizens.”

Urtasun said that if Israel participated in 2026 “and we fail to expel it, measures will have to be taken” – as cited by the Spanish daily newspaper La Vanguardia – and reminded viewers that Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez previously called on EBU to ban Israel from the international competition.

In May, Sánchez called on the EBU to exclude Israel, saying that “no one was shaking their heads” when Russia was banned from international competitions and Eurovision after its invasion of Ukraine. He called for the same ban to be applied to Israel over the Gaza war.

Urtasun specified that it is not antisemitic to denounce the “genocide” taking place in Gaza and described Israel as a “genocidal government.”

These statements by Ireland and Spain, as well as growing public protests, show quite to what extent Eurovision is facing a huge crisis.

The contest has been caught up in political…