Israel will participate in Eurovision 2024, despite growing calls from fans, musicians and authorities for it to be banned due to its current siege in Gaza. The organizers insist that the requirements are met for the country to compete in the 68th edition, contrary to what they argued with Russia after the invasion of Ukraine.
“The Eurovision Song Contest is a non-political musical event and competition between public service broadcasters that are members of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU).” It is not a competition between governments,” explained its director Noel Curran, in a statement collected by The Guardian.
Curran assures that the Israeli public broadcaster Kan complied with all the rules of the contest for this year. And he argues that it is a different case from that of Russia: “Russian broadcasters themselves were suspended from the EBU due to their persistent failure to comply with the obligations of their members and violation of public service values.”
Finally, he argued that the EBU was acting in line with other international organizations, such as sports federations, which have kept Israel in their competitions.
The organization has defended Israel’s participation from the beginning, despite its constant attacks on the civilian population of Gaza. “We understand the concerns and deep beliefs about the current conflict in the Middle East, but we are committed to ensuring that the festival remains a non-political event,” he said in another statement in January.
Given this position, voices are growing calling for a boycott of Israel at the festival, mainly in Nordic countries, where artists from Iceland and Finland have been in favor of their countries not competing in Malmö if Israel does. A group of MEPs has also asked for their exclusion from the competition.
Israel has been participating in Eurovision since 1973 and has won the contest in 1978 (with the remembered song A-Ba-Ni-Bi), 1979, 1998 (the artist Dana International) and 2018, with Toy by Netta Barzilai.
