Spain, Ireland and 3 others exit Bbc Eurovision over Israel row
Five broadcasters have withdrawn from eurovision in 2026, with Spain, Ireland, the Netherlands, Iceland and Slovenia all walking away over Israel's inclusion. It is the biggest boycott in the contest's 70-year history, and it lands after a year of dispute over how the public vote and geopolitics now collide inside Eurovision.
Graham Norton said organisers would be “will be breathing the largest sigh of relief that they’re not faced with a Tel Aviv final next year” after Austria overtook Israel to win last May's contest and secure the right to host this year's event. That remark captures how much pressure built around the show before the 2026 field was even set, and why the withdrawal of five broadcasters is more than a symbolic protest.
Basel protests and stage chaos
Several hundred people protested in Basel ahead of the final, wearing the Palestinian flag and smearing themselves with fake blood to symbolise the killings in Gaza. During the grand final, two people tried to storm the stage and threw paint that hit a Eurovision crew member, turning the event into a security and editorial headache as much as a music competition.
Yuval Raphael still finished with middling points from the judges and outperformed every other participant in the public vote. That split result triggered questions from broadcasters over how Israel could land so highly with viewers, especially after official social media accounts linked to Israel's government, including Benjamin Netanyahu's account, asked people to vote for Israel's representative 20 times, the maximum the contest allowed.
EBU vote check
The European Broadcasting Union said the vote had been independently checked and verified, and that there was no evidence voting up to 20 times disproportionately affects the final result. It later called the result “a valid and robust result”, a phrase that matters because the dispute is no longer only about one song or one singer; it is now about whether Eurovision's voting structure can survive sustained political pressure from within the broadcaster family.
Israel first entered the contest in 1973 and has won it four times. With 35 countries taking part in 2026, the five-country walkout leaves the field intact on paper but fractures the consensus that keeps Eurovision operating as a shared television event rather than a rolling political argument.
For viewers and broadcasters, the practical takeaway is simple: the boycott has already changed the shape of 2026, and the next fight will be over whether the contest can keep its current voting model without more exits.
