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Banning Russia but not Israel is peak hypocrisy. It shouldn’t have been accepted in the first place because of the war crimes it has been committing over the past 70 years.
In theory, there’s no mechanism in the rules to ban a country just because they suck. Russia was banned for the same reason Georgia was for a while (and may be again) - the national broadcaster must be free and independent from government control.
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Netanyahu’s government has been trying to control or kill KAN, their public broadcaster, for allowing content critical of the government. Last year the government seems to have pressured KAN to change the song. It’s a mixed result there. Mostly independent but under a lot of pressure?
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There is a moral imperative not to normalize the Israeli government’s behavior in Gaza and w.r.t. Palestinians in general. If enough countries threaten to boycott, the EBU would have to give in. They aren’t worried about ( I think it was) Jordan boycotting the contrst because of Israel, but if Germany and Spain back out that might be another story.
The EBU’s official statements on the subject for your reading pleasure:
https://eurovision.tv/mediacentre/frequently-asked-questions-israel-24
And here is a Guardian article on that: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/may/16/israel-eurovision-gaza-european-broadcasting-union
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