Cav's Place

Some rule changes that are supposedly “designed to stop governments and third parties from disproportionately promoting songs to influence voters” were apparently enough to stop even a vote about banning Israel from Eurovision 2026, the EBU doing everything to push through their double standards by connecting the two issues and holding a single vote, those in favor of the changes therefore also voting against a vote on the ban. So, with 738 in favor, 264 against and 120 abstentions, the motion easily passed and, while Russia and Belarus remain banned, and rightly so, Israel will continue to be allowed to take part in the contest despite the far worse atrocities committed. That may be because the prevailing view remains that Israel can do no wrong or because Palestinians aren’t seen as, for lack of a better term, sufficiently human, though it’s most probably a mixture of both, and either way that issue affects much more important matters and it’s not, in itself, the topic of this post, which is just about the Eurovision Song Contest.
At least four countries, Ireland, the Netherlands, Slovenia and, most importantly, Spain, which is one of the Big Five, have announced that they’ll boycott the 2026 edition because of this decision, and it seems that Iceland and Belgium are considering it as well, even if Iceland seems to have been among the countries who voted in favor of the motion. On the other hand, three countries, all from my part of the world, one of them actually being Romania and the other two being Moldova and Bulgaria, announced that they’ll return, which strikes me as a particularly rotten move, doubly so in Romania’s case, since on top of the Israel issue, and the fact that Romania does recognize the Palestinian state, TVR has skipped the last two editions citing budget constraints but now they’ll return despite the country being hit with austerity policies and people having to seriously tighten their belts.
Either way, Spain’s withdrawal should have done some damage, but the Austrian organizers of next year’s edition have already stated that they’ll cover the additional expenses to ensure that “the show will not suffer in any way”. And, on that note, I must say that it’s particularly unfortunate that this edition will take place there, and I’m not even sure if it’s the second worst possible host country or it is, in fact, an even worse choice than Germany would have been, looking at things from the point of view of having any chance to stop giving Israel a free pass for anything and everything. So, if no other big names will somehow decide to grow a spine at least in this matter, which is a minor one that nevertheless holds a fair bit of symbolic significance, I don’t see how anything could change.
As for me, I guess I’ll stick to my personal boycott next year as well. That was easy for the past two years, with the contest not even being on TV here and its presence in the news being greatly reduced as a result, while things will be somewhat different next year, if Romania will actually participate again, but that may actually make 2026 the first year when I’ll “properly” boycott the event over the Israel matter. And, if FalastinVision will continue to be held, I guess I’ll once again replace my usual ESC post or posts with one about that.