On Saturday, October 7, Hamas militants launched a massive rocket attack on southern and central Israel, storming the country and taking hostages.
The European Language Union said it has no plans to ban Israel from participating in Eurovision 2024. Eurovoix reported this.
It is known that the request to ban Israel’s participation arose after it was included in the list of countries participating in the song competition. Therefore, many supporters of Palestine have called for a ban on its participation due to the ongoing war with Hamas.
“Song competition Eurovision is a competition for public service broadcasters from across Europe and the Middle East. This is a competition for broadcasters, not governments, and the Israeli public broadcaster has been participating in the competition for 50 years,” the union said.
EBU representatives also reviewed the list of participants and decided that the Israeli public broadcaster met all the rules of the competition. Along with 36 other broadcasters, he will participate in next year’s competition.
The EBU based its decision on the current attitude of other international organizations towards Israel.
“Today there is an inclusive attitude towards Israeli participants in big competitions. Song competitions Eurovision remains a non-political event that unites audiences around the world through music.”
Some have drawn parallels between Israel, which was entered into the competition, and the Russian Federation, whose participation was banned after the attack on Ukraine.
“In 2022, after the invasion of Ukraine, the governing bodies of the EBU decided to exclude the Russian Federation from the song competition. Eurovision, where its representatives have to compete with Ukraine. As said before, the song competition Eurovision is a competition for broadcasters. Following repeated violations of membership obligations and violations of public media values, Russia’s participation has been suspended,” the EBU said.
As previously reported in the song competition Eurovision 2024which will take place in Malmo, Sweden next May, will be attended by representatives from 37 countries.
Source: korrespondent
