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Ireland, Spain, the Netherlands and Slovenia will boycott next year's Eurovision Song Contest, after Israel was allowed to compete.

They were among a number of countries who had called for Israel to be excluded over the humanitarian toll of the war in Gaza, and accusations of unfair voting practices.

Despite calls for a vote on Israel's participation, members instead approved a new set of rules intended to protect the integrity of the contest.

Ireland's national broadcaster RTE said it felt that its "participation remains unconscionable given the appalling loss of lives in Gaza and the humanitarian crisis there which continues to put the lives of so many civilians at risk."

In a statement, Dutch broadcaster Avrotros said that "participation under the current circumstances is incompatible with the public values ​​that are essential to us".

Spanish broadcaster RTVE added: "The board of directors of RTVE agreed last September that Spain would withdraw from Eurovision if Israel was part of it."

"This withdrawal also means that RTVE will not broadcast the Eurovision 2026 final... nor the preliminary semi-finals."

Continue reading here - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cde6d8wyp79o

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[–] gustofwind@lemmy.world 104 points 1 week ago (2 children)

If only Israelis had the capacity to feel shame

[–] CaptObvious@literature.cafe 18 points 1 week ago (2 children)

I understand that about half do. Unfortunately, like the US, they aren’t the half that count

[–] pulsewidth@lemmy.world 29 points 1 week ago (2 children)

82% of them are happy to expel all Gaza's Palestinian residents, that doesn't sound like people who experience shame for their governmeng killing ~40k civilian women and children over the last few years.

A further 56% favour expelling all Israeli citizens with Palestinian bloodlines and a lovely 47%..

agreed that "when conquering an enemy city, the Israel Defense Forces should act as the Israelites did in Jericho under Joshua's command – killing all its inhabitants." Sixty-five percent said they believed in the existence of a modern-day incarnation of Amalek, the Israelite biblical enemy whom God commanded to wipe out in Deuteronomy 25:19. Among those believers, 93 percent said the commandment to erase Amalek's memory remains relevant today.

https://archive.is/nNzq4

I'm not seeing much conscience or shame in those numbers.

[–] CaptObvious@literature.cafe 10 points 1 week ago (5 children)

I’d like to know how Israelis as a whole respond to these questions, since this sounds like it surveyed only religious conservatives.

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[–] Kornblumenratte@feddit.org 3 points 1 week ago

Well - conscienc and shame are just emotions that make us adhere to social rules.

After a pogrom in the 13~~th~~ century the citicens of my city repented formally and build a church on the ground of the former Jewish quarter. They repented for having the Jews allowed to live in the city.

It's very probable that a good portion of the 93 percent of Jewish Israelis who agreed that the commandment to erase Amalek's memory remains relevant today are indeed ashamed that they haven't managed to erase the memory of Palastine yet.

If the comittment to genocide a neighbour is this deeply engrained in a culture I'm sort of desperate. All genocides I recall that were not (mostly) successfull were only stopped by external military intervention.

[–] gustofwind@lemmy.world 16 points 1 week ago

My understanding is it’s way less than half

[–] cosmicrookie@lemmy.world 59 points 1 week ago (2 children)

They made a choice. Let's see how they handle the consequences

[–] clay_pidgin@sh.itjust.works 38 points 1 week ago (2 children)

What consequences? That they won't win this year either?

Oh, you mean the EBU probably. One of the Big 5 leaving is really something. I can't imagine Spain leaving the EBU itself though.

[–] BakerBagel@midwest.social 36 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Iceland, Belgium, and Portugal are likely to leave as well, with the Polish Culture minister calling for a boycott if Israel participates a few months ago. The more countries that drop, the more expensive it will be to participate for the remaining countries as well.

[–] huppakee@piefed.social 8 points 1 week ago (1 children)

the more expensive it will be to participate for the remaining countries as well.

I don't think the boycotting countries will leave the EBU or stop paying for their membership.

[–] BakerBagel@midwest.social 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

No, but the participants still have to pay a lot towards the show. They don't just get to piggy back off of the host amd Big 5. There are participation fees that cover the EBU expenses. Those have to be covered in by the participation fees

[–] ohulancutash@feddit.uk 9 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

The point of ESC is to get around 9 hours of content for much cheaper than broadcasters can normally do.

So for example, at the highest end of participation in the big 5, the BBC pays a fee of £300,000, and about the same again for production costs such as delegation hotels. That’s about the price of 2 hours’ worth of EastEnders. Per hour, its the cost of a mid-range game show.

In total, the fees reach around £5 million. The host nation’s broadcaster is then on the hook for the rest of the cost, which is usually an additional £8-18m. Effectively, unless everyone quits and there’s no-one to compete, ORF will be expected to cover any shortfall caused by the boycott.

[–] Successful_Try543@feddit.org 18 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

One of the Big Five (they are the largest financial contributors) leaving is, financially, indeed something.
As the ESC is only one part of the EBU (yet the most prominent one for the public) beside sharing of media, news and technical collaboration, leaving the EBU completely over the israeli participation at the ESC would give that occassion way too much relevance.

[–] pupbiru@aussie.zone 6 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

leaving the EBU completely over the israeli participation at the ESC would give that occassion way too much relevance.

whilst i agree, i think it’s also important to acknowledge that non-participation in ESC isn’t about non-participation in ESC… it’s not like they’re not participating because they don’t like israel’s songs; it’s about a principal. if the decision was made about israel to do with ESC it says something about the EBUs values and how it’s being run

non-participation isn’t meant as a punishment, and it’s not even really about ESC: it’s meant to be a statement to the EBU as a whole: we don’t support this and won’t support anyone who does

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[–] theacharnian@lemmy.ca 51 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

The fact that this was up for debate, the fact that there are countries that choose to boycott as a result, the fact that this is news: these are wins people. The cracks have formed and it's starting to buckle. It is now normal and mainstream to talk about boycotting the genocidal Israeli apartheid regime. Even the German apartheid-apologist institutions are forced to say they respect the decisions of non-apologist ones. Don't take this as reason for cynicism and disappointment, it's quite the opposite! Apartheid South Africa didn't get boycotted, isolated and forced to recon with its crimes all at once, it was a process. KEEP PUSHING!

[–] biofaust@lemmy.world 41 points 1 week ago (1 children)

The main sponsor of the show, Moroccanoil, is an Israeli company. This was obvious.

[–] QuoVadisHomines@sh.itjust.works 22 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Moroccan Oil is an Israeli company?

[–] mirshafie@europe.pub 19 points 1 week ago

Yeah they make hair products.

[–] D_C@sh.itjust.works 25 points 1 week ago (1 children)

The boycotting countries should stay in and sing about how israeli's are genocidal murderers.

[–] ohulancutash@feddit.uk 9 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Political songs are not allowed

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[–] Jollyllama@lemmy.world 24 points 1 week ago

I hope more broadcasters drop out. Either it'll force their hand to expel all genocidal nations or make Eurovision a joke and viewership crashes.

[–] 000@lemmy.dbzer0.com 18 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Ireland, Netherlands, Spain, and Slovenia should make their own Eurovision

[–] sdfric88@lemmy.sdf.org 18 points 1 week ago

With hookers, and blackjack!

[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 8 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] brown567@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 week ago

Rubbish! Slime! Muck! Filth! Booo!

[–] null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 1 week ago

I think its great that countries are excluding themselves on this basis.

However, im not surprised that the contest has remained agnostic and that israel has not withdrawn.

[–] LanguageIsCool@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago

Ah yes, Israel, the European ~~country~~ settler colonialist state.

[–] MehBlah@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago

They should have their own contest with blackjack and hookers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-94qrgxH35M

[–] SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago

Unfortunately with how the Dutch public broadcasting system works Eurovision wil still be broadcasted in the Netherlands. AVROTROS is an independent public broadcasting organization however it broadcasts it’s programming via the NPO the Dutch public broadcasting governing body. And NPO is also a member of EBU so the next Eurovision will be broadcasted by the NPO.

[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

So European countries are dropping out while the non European Israel can continue.

Mmmmm, one wonders how that happened. One also wonders if these people that decided to boycott Eurovision over this are antisemitesor just people with a heart.

Fuck the Israeli government.

Jail Netanyahu, retreat all your forces back into Israel, allow an independent Palestinian state, pay reparations to Palestine state, beg all Palestinians forgiveness for your 5+ decades crimes, then beg the world for forgiveness for calling everyone that protested their crimes and antisemite, and then maybe maybe maybe they should be allowed back into the world.

[–] IAmNorRealTakeYourMeds@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I can't boycott the Eurovision, I've never watched it

[–] gwl@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 1 week ago (5 children)

This added nothing to the discussion

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