Israel and Eurovision
Israel and Eurovision

Israel and Eurovision

I don't really pay attention to this contest as it isn't a thing here. But my social media does, and Israel has performed very well 2 years in a row now, especially with the call in voters. I assume this is political, but don't really know, and dont even really know what the exact political angle is, although I can of course speculate.

Any of the Euro's who might follow this event, or at least the politics of it, care to comment?

19 May 2025 at 01:47 PM
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15 Replies



My feed is full of pro-Israel people claiming that vote proves normal europeans like Israel, and pro-palestine people claiming it's obvious the jews bought the votes with bots or something.

I don't have enough elements to comment on what's more plausible, nor i care enough to spend time trying to adjudicate this particular controversy, so i just keep siding with Israel as i do in other cases as i know for a fact the pro-palestine crowd is always in bad faith on the stuff i care to check, so why shouldn't it be in this case as well?


Israel is in Eurovision? Didn't even realise it was in Europe.


by d2_e4 m

Israel is in Eurovision? Didn't even realise it was in Europe.

Australia and several North African countries participate in Eurovision.


by Trolly McTrollson m

Australia and several North African countries participate in Eurovision.

Well ****, every day's a school day.


by d2_e4 m

Israel is in Eurovision? Didn't even realise it was in Europe.

Israel is also in european football (soccer) championships because middle east and africa refuse to take Israel in their competitions.


its very instructive that Europe allows the state currently burning children alive and raping prisoners on an industrial scale to participate in their exhibitions.



by d2_e4 m

Well ****, every day's a school day.

Australia does take part, but no North African countries do. Algeria, Egypt, Libya and Tunisia are all eligible, because their broadcasters are affiliated members of the European Broadcasting Union, but they don't enter, supposedly because Israel does, so they're on a boycott. Morocco is also eligible but only entered once, in 1980.


You could hear the boos and shouts after Israel's entry last year, and there were a lot at this year's rehearsal, so the Swiss broadcaster put generic applause sounds after every entry in the live show to smooth things over and avoid an embarrassing shambles. Irish chat-show host Graham Norton, commentating in the arena for the BBC and clearly aware of this tech fix, said understatedly after the Israeli performance (by a singer who survived the Nova music festival massacre, a fairly obvious ploy to gain diaspora phone votes and 'cultural capital' to bulwark government policy), 'Not sure what you're hearing at home, but a bit of a mixed response here.' Which was fair and proper comment, for which he has of course been slammed by the usual Zionist media and social-media attack mob. He was also slammed for not mentioning the singer's traumatic backstory, but that's a tricky one, because if he did mention it he would be (a) introducing an unhappy political element that the show is not supposed to have, and (b) colluding in the vote-grab ploy when he's meant to be impartial. The 'pro-Palestinian' (and largely anti-semitic) attack mob are no better, so he was probably damned whatever he did.

There have been calls for Israel to be excluded from Eurovision because of the attack on Gaza, as Russia was excluded for the attack on Ukraine. The cases are different because Israel didn't start this phase of the conflict, even though it has become the principal aggressor by quite some way. Probably Israel should never have been admitted, given its necessarily controversial position and its long-term defiance of UN resolutions and human-rights norms, but, now it's in, the EBU don't like to take sides by showing it the door, even though they took sides by admitting it in the first place.


by Victor m

its very instructive that Europe allows the state currently burning children alive and raping prisoners on an industrial scale to participate in their exhibitions.

yes please never go into any European country and tell all the people that agree with you to do the same, they are monsters, no one with morals like yours should ever come to Europe


by 57 On Red m

Probably Israel should never have been admitted, given its necessarily controversial position and its long-term defiance of UN resolutions and human-rights norms, but, now it's in, the EBU don't like to take sides by showing it the door, even though they took sides by admitting it in the first place.

Unless there is something weird going on, given the support by public voters for the Israeli contestants the last 2 years, it doesn't seem like the European public believes this. Maybe it isn't political at all, and the Israeli contestants the last 2 years were just very good. But I am skeptical that is what happened. There seems to be some sort of referendum going on, that is very at odds with what European leaders and media are saying.


Trump gonna send the entire Eurovision crowd to El Salvador if they’re not careful


I would be torture to watch Eurovision - both visually and musically.

Concluding that Israel get votes for political reasons is probably true. On the other hand there will be people who never is voting for Israel - also for political reasons.

As far as I recall Israel has won the contest twice.


by 57 On Red m

You could hear the boos and shouts after Israel's entry last year, and there were a lot at this year's rehearsal, so the Swiss broadcaster put generic applause sounds after every entry in the live show to smooth things over and avoid an embarrassing shambles.

I know ****-all about Eurovision, but this seems very Hunger Games-esque.


by Dunyain m

Unless there is something weird going on, given the support by public voters for the Israeli contestants the last 2 years, it doesn't seem like the European public believes this. Maybe it isn't political at all, and the Israeli contestants the last 2 years were just very good. But I am skeptical that is what happened. There seems to be some sort of referendum going on, that

Most normal people don't bother to vote. Israel obviously benefits from a diaspora 'home crowd' pounding the phones like crazy, which conveniently gets around the rule that you can't vote for your own country.

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