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c/world · by liffeyman@lemmy.world · 356d

Irish broadcaster RTE says that Ireland will not participate in Eurovision next year if Israel does

https://about.rte.ie/2025/09/11/rte-statement-2026-eurovision-song-contest/

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/35769057

234 points · 11 comments · view on lemmy.world

11 Comments

shininghero@pawb.social · 36 pts · 356d (1 reply)

First Spain, and now Ireland. I don't even know what goes on at Eurovision, but let's hope the momentum on this keeps going.

EtherWhack@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 356d

It's more or less the European version of American Idol, so I can see the protests being a sizable thing

Usernamealreadyinuse@lemmy.world · 29 pts · 356d (1 reply)

Well done Ireland! This is a statement more countries should follow

Usernamealreadyinuse@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 355d

Yeah The Netherlands are boycottting as well!

N0t_5ure@lemmy.world · 28 pts · 356d (5 replies)

Israel isn't in Europe, so why is it in Eurovision in the first place?

MurrayL@lemmy.world · 18 pts · 356d (1 reply)

I feel like this gets asked often. There are several countries that aren’t in Europe but that currently participate in Eurovision: Israel, Cyprus, Armenia, and Australia.

The contest is organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which is made up of various broadcasters from countries across Europe and beyond. The BBC is a member of the EBU, as is RTE in Ireland, Rai in Italy, SVT in Sweden and so on. There are 73 member stations from more than 56 countries, and they're entitled to send acts to Eurovision if they wish.

So as long as a nation has a broadcaster that operates inside the EBU, they’re allowed to enter.

kreskin@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 352d

Look at this map of EBU members and associate members https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Broadcasting_Union#/media/File:EBU_Member_Elliptic.svg

If australia is a "member" then so is china, india, iran, brazil, chile, egypt, algeria, south africa, japan, new zealand, malaysia, brunei

So..is iran allowed to compete? How about the Brunei, a portion of the island of Borneo? "Euro"vision becomes a bit of a joke, doesnt it.

OrteilGenou@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 356d (1 reply)

That's a good question... Is there a large European diaspora in Israel?

sznowicki@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 356d

Good one xD

NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io · 4 pts · 356d

It's in the European Broadcasting Area. So is most of the Middle East, but in the region only Israel participates.

kreskin@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 352d

Isrel is not even remotely in Europe anyway, and they for damn sure do not share european values on much of anything. They never should have been allowed to compete in the first place.

There should be a "pariah vision" where the cunt countries all compete for who is most nationalistic. I might even watch that.