The Netherlands has joined a growing group of countries pressuring organisers of the Eurovision Song Contest to exclude Israel from next year’s competition because of the war in Gaza, saying it will boycott the event in Vienna if Israel is allowed to participate.
Dutch public broadcaster AVROTROS said in a statement it would not take part in the 2026 contest “given the ongoing and severe human suffering in Gaza.” The broadcaster also cited what it described as a “serious erosion of press freedom,” saying it was alarmed by the “deliberate exclusion of independent international reporting and the many casualties among journalists.”
The Dutch move follows similar steps by other European broadcasters and governments. Ireland’s public broadcaster RTE issued a comparable statement Thursday, Slovenia has already announced it will not participate, and Iceland said it may withdraw. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez publicly called for Israel to be excluded. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which organises the contest, has given participating countries until mid-December to confirm their involvement.
Organisers face mounting pressure from arts organisations and cultural figures seeking to ostracise Israel over its military campaign in Gaza. Earlier this week, Film Workers for Palestine said roughly 3,000 industry figures, including high-profile actors and filmmakers, had signed a pledge to boycott Israeli film institutions they described as “implicated in genocide and apartheid against the Palestinian people.” The list of signatories released by the group included household names from Hollywood and Europe.
The controversy is the latest example of geopolitical conflict spilling into cultural events. Russia was banned from Eurovision following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, while Israel has continued to participate in recent contests despite controversy and calls for exclusion. Pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel demonstrations have accompanied recent Eurovision contests; organisers said protests at this year’s show in Basel were smaller than those that accompanied the 2024 event in Sweden.
Dozens of former Eurovision participants have publicly urged that Israel be barred, including Nemo, the 2024 winner representing Switzerland. At this year’s contest, Israeli singer Yuval Raphael finished second to Austria’s JJ. The EBU has faced repeated calls to reconcile the contest’s non-political rules with mounting international pressure and public sentiment tied to the Gaza war.
AVROTROS said it would continue preparations for the contest until the EBU makes a decision on Israel’s participation. Eurovision’s 2026 semi-finals are scheduled for May 12 and 14, with the grand final on May 16 in Vienna.
The EBU has not publicly indicated how it will respond if a number of its member broadcasters refuse to participate. Any decision will test the organisation’s capacity to balance the contest’s stated aim of cultural unity with escalating political and humanitarian concerns voiced by member broadcasters, governments and artists across the continent.