Eurovision Song Contest director Martin Green affirmed in a recently published interview with Variety that there would be no further votes by countries in the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) on whether to exclude Israel from the competition.
Green told Variety: “No, that’s done. The membership spoke conclusively. Almost 70% made their decision that they believe that public service broadcasters are not responsible for the actions of their government, and that [the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation] KAN should be allowed to participate.”
Following Israel’s 2025 Eurovision showing, in which Yuval Raphael’s performance of “New Day Will Rise” came in first in the televoting and second overall, there were calls to investigate Israel for possible rules violations.
When no wrongdoing was found, five countries – Spain, Slovenia, the Netherlands, Ireland, and Iceland – chose to boycott Eurovision in 2026, rather than perform alongside Israel, after the EBU, at its general assembly in December, declined to put the matter of Israeli participation to a vote.
Israel, represented in 2026 by Noam Bettan singing “Michelle,” came in second again, amid a slew of articles from publications such as The New York Times alleging cheating on Israel’s part, but which provided no evidence.
In the Variety interview, Green reiterated that there was no reason to doubt the validity of the results of either the jury vote or the televote this year or in past years, saying, “We had a fully validated vote again this year. We saw no evidence of undue large-scale paid promotion; we saw no evidence of anything untoward in our voting at all.”
“We know that the availability of [the audience each] being able to vote 10 times doesn’t make any difference to the outcome,” Green said. “Our vote is fair and true and validated, and it’s like any vote, really. If you’re not that keen on the outcome, then next year, vote more and vote for something else.”
In other Eurovision news, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, CBC, has been accepted as an EBU member, meaning Canada will be able to participate in Eurovision, joining other non-European countries that take part, including Israel, Australia, Cyprus, and Armenia.
Source:
www.jpost.com
