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THE EUROVISION SONG Contest should exclude Israel, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has said, expressing solidarity with “the people of Palestine who are experiencing the injustice of war and bombardment”.
Sanchez said that the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which organises the Eurovision, were “allowing double standards” by including Israel, but not Russia.
Russia has not been allowed participate in the contest since its 2022 invasion of Ukraine, “therefore Israel shouldn’t either, because what we cannot allow is double standards in culture”, said Sanchez.
The Spanish leader has been a vocal critic of Israel in recent weeks, labelling the nation a “genocidal state” during parliamentary discussions last week.
Sanchez is the first European leader to call for Israel’s exclusion. Previously, 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”.
Israel’s involvement in the Eurovision once again faced backlash and protests this year – a number of Palestinian flags were seen in the crowd during the final, and two pro-Palestinian protestors were detained by security after attempting to breach a barrier as the Israeli singer Yuval Raphael performed during the final.
Israel finished second overall in the final, winning the most votes in the public vote. The contest was won by Austria, meaning it’s set to be staged at an Austrian venue next year.
The EBU has consistently defended Israel’s right to take part in the annual competition as its national broadcaster, Kan, is a member of the EBU. Steps were taken to bar Russia’s national broadcasters from being members of the EBU in the wake of the 2022 Ukraine invasion.
Meanwhile Spain’s public broadcaster RTVE has that the EBU investigate the Spanish televote, after it gave its highest score to Israeli act Yuval Raphael.
RTVE received 142,688 votes during Saturday night’s Eurovision final, according to an initial report the Spanish broadcaster had requested from the EBU.
On the night of the final, the broadcaster received 7,283 phone calls, 23,840 text messages, and 111,565 online votes.
Voting in Eurovision can be done through the official app (with a limit of 20 votes per person, each costing €0.99), as well as via telephone and SMS.
During the first semi-final on Tuesday (in which Israel did not compete), RTVE received just 774 phone calls, 2,377 text messages, and 11,310 online votes – almost 10 times less votes in total.
A number of national broadcasters, including the Spanish broadcaster and RTÉ, have called for a debate on Israel’s future inclusion in the contest.
It’s not clear yet of RTÉ intend to back RTVE’s calls for a televote review, but a number of other nations have done so.
A spokesperson for Norway’s national broadcaster NRK, said in a statement that it would be “in everyone’s interest that the voting system is thoroughly evaluated to ensure the competition is as fair as possible”.
“I think it would be useful for us to have an internal discussion about this now, to see if there is anything specific we should raise with the EBU,” the spokesperson added.
Israel’s 357 points raised eyebrows among some viewers on Saturday night, but regular fans were not surprised – this is the third year in a row that popular votes for Israel vastly outstripped the number of votes it received from the national juries.
Raphael’s second-place showing was greeted in Israel as a major achievement in the face of adversity.
“The message is crystal clear: While the elite staff of the public broadcasters may despise Israel, audiences around the world either enjoyed the song, were touched by Raphael’s story of survival, or both,” Israeli new outlet the Jerusalem Post stated on Sunday.
The real reason behind the success is not so simple – an unusual voting system and radical advertising campaign seemed to aid Israel’s success.
The public vote makes up half of the votes awarded to each act, with the other half coming from national juries made up of industry experts.
The televoting is, obviously, likely to reflect a certain amount of public sentiment on whatever geopolitical issues might be gripping the wider European region in any particular year.
Back in 2022, for instance, 439 of Ukraine’s 631 points came from the viewers.
Public support for Israel has dropped across Europe, including in Ireland – where the vast majority (76%) support the imposing of sanctions on Israel due to the ongoing conflict in Gaza.
Despite this, Ireland’s televote gave Israel 10 points – the second-highest amount available.
However, Palestinian campaigners believe that the hefty number of Irish votes came following sponsored ads – which included a range of online content that made it as far as New York’s Times Square.
Yuval is shining her light in Times Square! ✨
— Ministry of Justice of Israel ישראל 🇮🇱🕎 (@ISRMoJ) May 14, 2025
“New Day Will Rise” lights up NYC ahead of Israel’s performance at the @Eurovision semi-finals tomorrow.
Tomorrow: VOTE #14 FOR ISRAEL! 🇮🇱🎶
pic.twitter.com/7Q79IL7ddQ
Israel only needed a relatively small percentage of the vote to come second, according to Kevin Cunningham, lecturer in politics at TU Dublin and pollster with Ireland Thinks.
“If Israel itself was on the ballot – let’s say if it was a referendum on the behaviour of Israel – you have one Israeli option and 24 other or non-Israel options,” Cunningham explained after the 2024 Eurovision final.
“That means at the end of the day that one option is going to consolidate all the support for Israel and the non-Israeli options are going to be more diffuse and more diluted in terms of those choices.”
Martin Green, Director of the Eurovision Song Contest, said in a statment this evening that a “valid vote” was recorded in all participating countries this year.
“It is important to emphasize that the voting operation for the Eurovision Song Contest is the most advanced in the world and each country’s result is checked and verified by a huge team of people to exclude any suspicious or irregular voting patterns,” Green said.
“An independent compliance monitor reviews both jury and public vote data to ensure we have a valid result.
“Our voting partner Once has confirmed that a valid vote was recorded in all countries participating in this year’s Grand Final and in the Rest of the World.”
Israel’s singer this year, Yuval Raphael, is a survivor of the Hamas attack on the Nova Music Festival in Israel in October 2023. 378 people died in the attack on the festival, and over 1,200 were killed in the wider attacks carried out by Hamas on 7 October.
Since then, over 52,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, as Israeli forces continue to assault the region with airstrikes and ground offensives.
Ahead of the second Eurovision semi-final last Thursday, Rina Matzliach, co-host of a popular morning radio show on Israel’s public broadcasting station Kan (basically Israel’s RTÉ Radio 1 equivalent), urged Israelis and Jews living in Europe to make sure they voted for Israel’s Yuval Raphael.
“Not just because she’s one of our own,” she explained, “but to stick it to our enemies.”
The song seemed to be a reference to the Nova massacre – the music video features a group of young people, including Raphael, gathering outdoors and playing music, seemingly reminicent of the Nova Music Festival.
This subtle message seemingly encouraged Israeli supporters across Europe to vote in droves during the Eurovision.
Meanwhile, those boycotting likely did not cast votes – meaning Israel once again got a podium position in the song contest.
Last year, Israel was forced to revise the lyrics of its initial entrant song, ‘October Rain’ due to perceived references to the 7 October Hamas attack.
After the song lyrics were revised, Israeli singer Eden Golan finished in fifth place in the final, narrowly ahead of Irish entrant Bambie Thug in sixth.
The event was mired in controversy, as several performers from other competing nations signalled their frustration that the debate around the inclusion of Israel would likely overshadow the world’s largest live music event.
Additional reporting from AFP
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