LAST UPDATE | 9 May

EUROVISION ORGANISERS HAVE committed to hosting “wider discussions” among member nations about the inclusion of Israel in the international song contest, according to RTÉ.

The contest, run by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), has faced increasing calls to remove Israel from the competition since the start of the Gaza war – and this year the pressure on organisers has mounted amid a prolonged blockade by Israel stopping any supplies from entering Gaza.

In a statement RTÉ Director-General Kevin Bakhurst confirmed that he, along with RTÉ’s Director of Video, Steve Carson, held a meeting earlier today with the EBU.

During the meeting, Bakhurst “raised RTÉ’s concerns” about Israel’s participation in the Eurovision, and said that there “is a commitment from the EBU to have a wider discussion amongst members in due course”.

Bakhurst wrote to the EBU this week asking for a “discussion on Israel’s inclusion” but has said that Ireland will be taking part in the Eurovision this year regardless of the outcome of those discussions.

Protesters are planning to demonstrate later outside RTÉ.

The Irish-Palestine Solidarity Campaign is staging a demonstration involving a “mini-concert” outside RTÉ’s studios in Stillorgan at 5pm this afternoon.

IPSC Chairperson Zoe Lawlor described Israel’s participation in the contest as culture-washing. 

“It’s vital to exclude the genocidal apartheid state of Israel from this global cultural platform, now,” Lawlor said in a statement.

Separately, more than 350 independent Irish TV and film producers have signed an open letter calling on the EBU to remove Israel from the song contest.

The EBU have been contacted for comment on RTÉ’s latest statement.

‘Leave that to the broadcasters’

Earlier today, Taoiseach Micheál Martin held back from saying whether or not he thinks Israel should be allowed to compete in Eurovision, saying it is a “matter for the broadcasting networks”.

Asked today by The Journal whether he thinks Israel should be expelled from the competition, Martin said:

“I think it’s a matter in the first instance for the broadcasting networks and various authorities across Europe, and I think that they need to analyse that in the context of other voices in Israel that may be positive in the context of this conflict.”

“There is a precedent there,” he said, alluding to the EBU’s removal of Russia and Belarus from the contest in 2022 in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“But I prefer at this stage to leave that to the broadcasting agencies,” the Taoiseach said.

For over two months, Israel has been blocking any supplies like food, medicine or other aid from entering Gaza whilst continuing to land strikes that have killed civilians.

Israel has now said it wants to maintain a prolonged occupation in Gaza and forcibly move the Palestinian population into a small area of the region. It also wants to take over control of aid that goes into Gaza instead of allowing humanitarian organisations to operate.

The Taoiseach said this afternoon that organisations like UNRWA and the World Food Programme are “essential” in Gaza.

“They provide a very important independence in terms of the distribution of aid and avoiding the weaponisation of humanitarian aid,” Martin said.

“What Israel is essentially endeavoring to do, in my view, is to weaponise aid – it already has weaponised aid by refusing aid to go in, but if it starts taking exclusive control of the distribution of aid, I’ve no doubt that that would involve further weaponisation of aid and that’s not acceptable.”

Additional reporting by Daragh Brophy and Andrew Walsh