A debate about Israel’s participation in the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) has been charged in Spain. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez called for the exclusion of the country of competition and justified this with the military approach to Israel in the Gaza Strip.
The offensive was even dusted with further bombing on Sunday on the night of the ESC final, the prime minister said. “We are not allowed to allow double standards in culture.” So nobody was indignant when Russia was excluded from the song competition because of the invasion of Ukraine. “The same must also apply to Israel”.
The RTVE state broadcaster has now announced that it would request a revision from the public that votes that the participant of Israel Yuval Raphael had catapulted in second place. “Different countries will also submit the same application because they believe that televotten was influenced by the current military conflicts and this could endanger the cultural nature of the event,” said the broadcaster.
Warning for political messages
Already in the run -up of the Eurovision Songfestival, the Spanish broadcaster RTVE had said that the European Radio Union (EBU) was warned about spreading political messages during the live broadcasts. Otherwise there will be high fines. The trigger was an indication of the victims of the war in the Gaza Strip, which RTVE had shown in the second semi -finals. Nevertheless, the broadcaster showed another message before the end of the final, because silence was not an option.
Israel was clearly first with the public. The 24-year-old Yuval Raphael is a survivor of the Hamas massacre on October 7, 2023. Because of the war there were always protests against her participation in Basel.
The Belgian broadcaster supports claims
The requirement to exclude Israel from the ESC in the future will be supported by the Belgian public broadcaster VRT. He also doubted his own future participation because of open questions about the voting of the public.
Source: Krone
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