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Netherlands will boycott 2026 Eurovision if Israel participates, says broadcaster (nltimes.nl)

submitted 2 days ago by geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml to c/europe@lemmy.ml

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Dutch broadcast company AVROTROS has announced that the Netherlands will boycott the 2026 edition of the Eurovision Song Contest if Israel is allowed to compete. The Netherlands is the fifth country to announce a planned boycott of the event, which is scheduled to be held in Vienna.

“AVROTROS can no longer justify Israel’s participation in the current situation, given the ongoing and severe human suffering in Gaza,” the company said in a statement. The organization manages Dutch participation and broadcast rights for the competition as part of the Dutch public broadcasting umbrella, NPO.

AVROTROS stated that they have been in discussions with the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) regarding Israel’s participation in 2026. The broadcaster added that they are also concerned about the “serious erosion of press freedom,” citing the interference by the Israeli government in last year’s edition, claiming that the event was used as a “political instrument.”

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[–] princessnorah@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 1 day ago

Part of this is that we've been an associate member of the EBU since 1950 with our ABC and 1979 for the SBS, the current participant broadcaster. I really don't see a good reason for it not to expand outside of Europe.

Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Tunisia and Morocco are all active members of the EBU and so could decide to compete without needing to be invited.

The list of associate members that could be invited by the EBU is even longer; Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Cuba, Hong Kong, Iran, Japan, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Mauritius, Nepal, New Zealand, Oman, South Korea and Syria. You could make it a real global affair, and a place for peace. Especially if you didn't give countries currently engaged in war a platform.