Occupied Palestine (QNN)- An investigation has found that Israel orchestrated a “well-organized campaign” to use the Eurovision Song Contest as a “soft power” tool aimed at “to “burnish its flagging reputation and rally international support” amid the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
The investigation was carried out by New York Times and says that Israel carried out a state-backed influence campaign during past editions of Eurovision, fuelling speculation that the results were distorted as a result.
In the report, New York Times says that the Israeli occupation government used the song contest as a way to “burnish the country’s flagging reputation and rally international support”, and had implemented promotional efforts around the contest dating back to 2018.
It adds that Israel spent at least $1million (£730,000) on marketing for Eurovision. Some of this funding came from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hasbara office, which works on issues related to its public image.
In 2024 alone, there was reportedly $800,000 (£587,110) allocated towards “vote promotion” for the contest.
Governments are not supposed to interfere with voting, and Eurovision’s director Martin Green claimed previously that while Israel’s actions were excessive, they did not contribute to the country coming in second-place in 2024 or in 2025.
The New York Times also reports that Israel’s contestants won popular votes from countries where Israel is “deeply unpopular”.
Last year, Netanyahu shared an image on social media encouraging people to vote 20 times (the maximum amount) for Raphael, and multiple pro-Israel groups across Europe reportedly shared the same image.
After the 2025 edition, some countries’ broadcasters demanded to see the voting data and others called for an external investigation into the results, and while the contest’s director promised that the governing body would review the vote, the group was never provided with a “full vote analysis”.
More pressure over the voting system and efforts made by Israel’s government arose last July, when Spain called for a debate over Israel’s participation while at a broadcaster meeting in London, and also pushed for a change in the voting system.
Czech broadcasting veteran Petr Dvorak was then hired to interview members of the EBU about Israel’s participation, and concluded that while opinions varied, some “felt that Israel as a state is sometimes using this event as some sort of promotional tool”.
Following a secret ballot, broadcasters agreed to have the rules changed in time for the 2026 competition, so that the maximum number of votes per viewer dropped to 10, instead of 20. According to the New York Times, already a team behind Israel’s 2026 entrant, Noam Bettan, has shared social media promotions encouraging people to vote for him 10 times.
“Employing a direct call to action to vote 10 times for one artist or song is also not in line with our rules, nor the spirit of the competition,” Green said in a statement.
Israel is set to take part in the 2026 competition, which began Tuesday and continues this week.
No Music For Genocide issued an open letter, signed by over 1,100 cultural workers and artists, calling for fans to boycott this year’s Eurovision unless Israel is banned from participating.
Amnesty International slammed this week the European Broadcasting Union for refusing to suspend Israel, saying the decision gives Israel an “international stage” even as it continues committing “genocide in Gaza, unlawful occupation and apartheid.”
In a statement ahead of Israel’s participation in the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest semi-finals, Amnesty International Secretary General Agnès Callamard said, “Songs and sequins must not be allowed to drown out or distract from Israel’s atrocities or Palestinian suffering.”
“Instead of sending a clear message that there is a cost for Israel’s atrocity crimes against the Palestinian people, the EBU has given Israel this international stage even as it continues to commit genocide in Gaza, unlawful occupation and apartheid.”
“The EBU is betraying the values of the Eurovision Song Contest, which include freedom from intolerance, hate speech and discrimination. It is also ignoring the protests by its members from Spain, Ireland, the Netherlands, Slovenia, and Iceland, who withdrew from the contest because of Israel’s participation. Ultimately, the EBU has betrayed humanity,” she said.
“Israeli participation in the Eurovision Song Contest offers the country a platform to try to deflect attention from and normalize its ongoing genocide in the occupied Gaza strip, and its moves towards further annexation of Gaza and the West Bank including East Jerusalem, as well as its system of apartheid against Palestinians.
“There should be no stage for Israel at Eurovision while there is an ongoing genocide. Israel’s impunity can no longer be tolerated, and people everywhere must act in accordance with their conscience and stand up for human rights.”
https://x.com/franceskalbs/status/2053814902662267054?s=46&t=t_-JFgpXqgMIkVsuBfWELw
What We Know
This year’s competition, Eurovision’s 70th anniversary, will have 35 competing countries and is scheduled to take place in Vienna, the Austrian capital, from 12 to 16 May.
This comes despite months of growing calls to ban Israel’s participation in the contest over the genocide in Gaza where more than 72,000 Palestinians have been killed.
Spain, Ireland, Slovenia, Netherlands and Iceland withdrew from this year’s contest.
The five countries had threatened to boycott this year’s edition of the glitzy music contest, if Israel took part, citing its genocidal war on Palestinians in Gaza, as well as confirmations that it unfairly intervened in the most recent competition to the benefit of its entrant in what reportedly was an attempt to politicize Eurovision.
The issue was initially supposed to be resolved with a vote in November 2024. But a few days after the announcement of a ceasefire agreement in Gaza on October 10, 2025 which Israel has violated repeatedly by killing hundreds of people and blocking the entry of much-needed aid, the EBU postponed the decision until its ordinary general assembly in Geneva.
Later, the contest’s organizing body declined to expel Israel. It said that it would instead introduce new rules “to reinforce trust and protect [the] neutrality” of the contest that would discourage governments from influencing the outcome.
That prompted the five countries to swiftly announce they would boycott the competition.
Russia was banned from competing in 2022 due to “the unprecedented crisis in Ukraine.”
The president of Slovenian broadcaster RTV noted that while the EBU banned Russia from Eurovision almost immediately after it invaded Ukraine in 2022, it "does not dare reject Israel".
In May that year, the EBU formally suspended its Russian members, indefinitely revoking their broadcasting and participation rights for future editions of Eurovision. Russia has not competed since.
RTÉ, the Irish broadcaster, said participation was “unconscionable given the appalling loss of lives in Gaza and the humanitarian crisis there” while RTVE in Spain said participating would engender “distrust” in the organisation given the depth of feeling over Gaza.
The Spanish broadcaster RTVE also said it would not broadcast the contest or the semi-finals in Vienna next year, describing the process of decision-making as “insufficient” and engendering “distrust”.
Spain’s Culture Minister, Ernest Urtasun, backed the boycott. He said: “You can’t whitewash Israel given the genocide in Gaza. Culture should be on the side of peace and justice. I’m proud of an RTVE that puts human rights before any economic interest.”
The Slovenian national broadcaster, RTVSLO – the first to threaten a boycott this summer – said participation “would conflict with its values of peace, equality and respect”. It said it was “on behalf of the 20,000 children who died” in Israel’s genocidal war on Palestinian people in Gaza.
Stefan Eiriksson, director-general of Icelandic national broadcaster RÚV, said: "There is no peace or joy connected to this contest as things stand now. On that basis, first and foremost, we are stepping back while the situation is as it is."
RÚV said Israel's participation had "created disunity among both members of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and the general public".
If the EBU fails to act, it risks a major split within Europe’s most-watched cultural event. For many broadcasters, the contest is no longer just about music, but about taking a stand on Gaza.
Over the past two years, Israel has faced objections to its participation in Eurovision not only by EBU members but also by contestants themselves.
In May 2025, more than 70 past Eurovision contestants released an open letter calling for the EBU to ban Israel from participating.
Embroiled in diplomatic tension, the contest’s organizers announced the contest will have 35 participants, the lowest ever participation since 2003.
