Artists repeat boycott call as Israel takes stage during Eurovision 2026
Thousands of people across Europe joined demonstrations and counter-events in the days leading to the final night of the Eurovision Song Contest, protesting Israel’s participation. “For the third consecutive year, they’ll find Israel celebrated onstage despite its ongoing genocide in Gaza,” over 2,000 cultural workers warned in an [open letter](https://nomusicforgenocide.org/eurovision) published by the platform No Music for Genocide.
The call brought together dozens of local artists and globally known names such as [Roger Waters](https://peoplesdispatch.org/2024/10/22/breaking-the-silence-roger-waters-on-palestine-censorship-and-self-censorship/) and Massive Attack, who called for performers, broadcasters, and fans to boycott Eurovision until Israel is excluded. “As musicians and cultural workers, many living within the reaches of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), we reject Eurovision being used to whitewash and normalize Israel’s genocide, siege, and brutal military occupation against Palestinians,” they wrote.
“We refuse to be silent when Israel’s genocidal violence soundtracks and silences Palestinian lives. When children in Israeli prisons endure beatings for humming a tune. When all that’s left of nearly every stage, studio, bookshop and university in Gaza is piles of rubble, under which slaughtered bodies still await recovery and proper burial.”
### ***Read more:*** [***Despite everything: remembering Mohammad Bakri (1953–2025)***](https://peoplesdispatch.org/2025/12/25/despite-everything-remembering-mohammad-bakri-1953-2025/)
Previously, broadcasters from [Iceland](https://www.instagram.com/p/DYZr-yvDfoL/?img_index=1), Ireland, the Netherlands, Slovenia, and Spain [announced](https://peoplesdispatch.org/2025/12/05/public-broadcasters-quit-eurovision-2026-over-participation-of-israel/) they would not participate in the contest over Israel’s participation. Irish, Slovenian, and Spanish broadcasters also decided not to stream Eurovision 2026, with *RTV Slovenija* instead showing [content related to Palestine](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2026/apr/23/slovenia-to-air-films-about-palestine-instead-of-eurovision-song-contest).
“The Eurovision Song Contest is now facing the biggest boycott and most serious crisis in its history after five European broadcasters withdrew rather than share a stage with genocidal Israel,” the [Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel](https://www.instagram.com/) (PACBI), a founding member of the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) National Committee, wrote. “For broadcasters, contestants, presenters and others to still participate in Eurovision alongside a state perpetrating an ongoing, livestreamed genocide amounts to complicity in artwashing genocide.”
Israel’s participation in Eurovision – an event followed by millions in the region – has long been recognized as one of the occupation power’s tools of soft power and pinkwashing. This is echoed by UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese in the report “[Gaza Genocide: A Collective Crime,](https://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/country-reports/a80492-gaza-genocide-collective-crime-report-special-rapporteur-situation)” where she warns that “Israel has been sheltered from accountability in courts as well as in global forms, with institutions preventing its deserved expulsion both from sports (…) and from cultural events (Eurovision, [Venice Biennale](https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/cursed-biennale)).”
Activists call for Eurovision boycott in front of Croatian national broadcaster HRT, February 2026. Source: Free Palestine Initiative/Facebook
Ahead of this year’s competition, even corporate media recognized intense lobbying by Israeli institutions – notably occupation president Isaac Herzog – to ensure participation. “Israel maneuvered in the shadows for months,” José Pablo López, president of the Spanish *RTVE*, warned. “What seemed like a democratic debate in Geneva was just a farce cooked up in backroom offices.”
Media investigations also [found](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/11/world/europe/eurovision-israel-gaza-netanyahu.html) that Israel has been involved in attempts to manipulate Eurovision votes for years.
### ***Read more:*** [***BDS movement makes significant strides across Europe***](https://peoplesdispatch.org/2026/05/11/bds-movement-makes-significant-strides-across-europe/)
In the week leading to the Eurovision final on Saturday, May 16, several events took place in host city Vienna – including a [demonstration](https://www.instagram.com/p/DYZxb_JIfhu/) and [musical performances](https://www.instagram.com/p/DYXOFn6Ijmn/) under the banner of [No Stage for Genocide](https://www.instagram.com/p/DYXOFn6Ijmn/). “These actions are directed against the decision of the ORF [Austria’s national public broadcaster] and the European Broadcasting Union to offer Israel a propaganda platform at the Eurovision Song Contest, despite the ongoing genocide in Palestine, massive displacement in Lebanon, and the attacks on Iran,” the network Palästina Solidarität Österreich said.
“By allowing Israel to participate in the ESC, Austria is not only risking its reputation and moral standing, but is actively undermining the last remnants of international law, peace and global stability,” a [joint statement](https://www.instagram.com/p/DYSc1uWl-NE/?img_index=1) by BDS Austria and the left-wing group [Judeobolschwiener\*innen](https://judeobolschewienerinnen.wordpress.com/grundsatze/) added.
Alternative events were also organized in Belgium, Croatia, Norway, and Serbia, among others, as local musicians upheld the boycott call.
The post [Artists repeat boycott call as Israel takes stage during Eurovision 2026](https://peoplesdispatch.org/2026/05/18/artists-repeat-boycott-call-as-israel-takes-stage-during-eurovision-2026/) appeared first on [Peoples Dispatch](https://peoplesdispatch.org/).
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The call brought together dozens of local artists and globally known names such as [Roger Waters](https://peoplesdispatch.org/2024/10/22/breaking-the-silence-roger-waters-on-palestine-censorship-and-self-censorship/) and Massive Attack, who called for performers, broadcasters, and fans to boycott Eurovision until Israel is excluded. “As musicians and cultural workers, many living within the reaches of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), we reject Eurovision being used to whitewash and normalize Israel’s genocide, siege, and brutal military occupation against Palestinians,” they wrote.
“We refuse to be silent when Israel’s genocidal violence soundtracks and silences Palestinian lives. When children in Israeli prisons endure beatings for humming a tune. When all that’s left of nearly every stage, studio, bookshop and university in Gaza is piles of rubble, under which slaughtered bodies still await recovery and proper burial.”
### ***Read more:*** [***Despite everything: remembering Mohammad Bakri (1953–2025)***](https://peoplesdispatch.org/2025/12/25/despite-everything-remembering-mohammad-bakri-1953-2025/)
Previously, broadcasters from [Iceland](https://www.instagram.com/p/DYZr-yvDfoL/?img_index=1), Ireland, the Netherlands, Slovenia, and Spain [announced](https://peoplesdispatch.org/2025/12/05/public-broadcasters-quit-eurovision-2026-over-participation-of-israel/) they would not participate in the contest over Israel’s participation. Irish, Slovenian, and Spanish broadcasters also decided not to stream Eurovision 2026, with *RTV Slovenija* instead showing [content related to Palestine](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2026/apr/23/slovenia-to-air-films-about-palestine-instead-of-eurovision-song-contest).
“The Eurovision Song Contest is now facing the biggest boycott and most serious crisis in its history after five European broadcasters withdrew rather than share a stage with genocidal Israel,” the [Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel](https://www.instagram.com/) (PACBI), a founding member of the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) National Committee, wrote. “For broadcasters, contestants, presenters and others to still participate in Eurovision alongside a state perpetrating an ongoing, livestreamed genocide amounts to complicity in artwashing genocide.”
Israel’s participation in Eurovision – an event followed by millions in the region – has long been recognized as one of the occupation power’s tools of soft power and pinkwashing. This is echoed by UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese in the report “[Gaza Genocide: A Collective Crime,](https://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/country-reports/a80492-gaza-genocide-collective-crime-report-special-rapporteur-situation)” where she warns that “Israel has been sheltered from accountability in courts as well as in global forms, with institutions preventing its deserved expulsion both from sports (…) and from cultural events (Eurovision, [Venice Biennale](https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/cursed-biennale)).”
Activists call for Eurovision boycott in front of Croatian national broadcaster HRT, February 2026. Source: Free Palestine Initiative/Facebook
Ahead of this year’s competition, even corporate media recognized intense lobbying by Israeli institutions – notably occupation president Isaac Herzog – to ensure participation. “Israel maneuvered in the shadows for months,” José Pablo López, president of the Spanish *RTVE*, warned. “What seemed like a democratic debate in Geneva was just a farce cooked up in backroom offices.”
Media investigations also [found](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/11/world/europe/eurovision-israel-gaza-netanyahu.html) that Israel has been involved in attempts to manipulate Eurovision votes for years.
### ***Read more:*** [***BDS movement makes significant strides across Europe***](https://peoplesdispatch.org/2026/05/11/bds-movement-makes-significant-strides-across-europe/)
In the week leading to the Eurovision final on Saturday, May 16, several events took place in host city Vienna – including a [demonstration](https://www.instagram.com/p/DYZxb_JIfhu/) and [musical performances](https://www.instagram.com/p/DYXOFn6Ijmn/) under the banner of [No Stage for Genocide](https://www.instagram.com/p/DYXOFn6Ijmn/). “These actions are directed against the decision of the ORF [Austria’s national public broadcaster] and the European Broadcasting Union to offer Israel a propaganda platform at the Eurovision Song Contest, despite the ongoing genocide in Palestine, massive displacement in Lebanon, and the attacks on Iran,” the network Palästina Solidarität Österreich said.
“By allowing Israel to participate in the ESC, Austria is not only risking its reputation and moral standing, but is actively undermining the last remnants of international law, peace and global stability,” a [joint statement](https://www.instagram.com/p/DYSc1uWl-NE/?img_index=1) by BDS Austria and the left-wing group [Judeobolschwiener\*innen](https://judeobolschewienerinnen.wordpress.com/grundsatze/) added.
Alternative events were also organized in Belgium, Croatia, Norway, and Serbia, among others, as local musicians upheld the boycott call.
The post [Artists repeat boycott call as Israel takes stage during Eurovision 2026](https://peoplesdispatch.org/2026/05/18/artists-repeat-boycott-call-as-israel-takes-stage-during-eurovision-2026/) appeared first on [Peoples Dispatch](https://peoplesdispatch.org/).
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