Why is Israel still participating in Eurovision and could win?

BarcelonaAlthough tensions have eased this year compared to the 2024 edition, Israel's continued participation in Eurovision continues to bother many of the countries competing in the festival organized by the European Broadcasting Union. The discomfort among Eurofans over Israel's presence was clear at the opening of the music competition, which took place on Sunday. (The semi-finals are on Tuesday and Thursday, and the final is on Saturday)During the traditional parade of all countries along the turquoise carpet, the audience gathered in the Swiss city of Basel, where the festival will be held, waved Palestinian flags and booed the Israeli representative, Yuval Raphael. Israeli singer Eden Golan, decided not to attend the opening red carpet and instead opted to attend a religious service at a Malmö synagogue in memory of the victims of the Holocaust.

While last year the festival organizers initially rejected Israel's song because they considered it to include political elements, this year's edition saw no problems with the song they submitted. This is curious, since Israel's proposal, New day will rise (A New Day Shall Emerge) can be understood as a message of hope following the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023, at the Supernova music festival, an idea reinforced by the official music video, which shows a group of young people heading to a camp. As if all these elements weren't enough, Raphael, 24, is a survivor of those attacks..

What does the European Broadcasting Union say?

This year, several delegations have asked the festival organizer to open a debate on the suitability of Israel's participation. Among the countries and public television stations that have raised the possibility of Israel's expulsion are: there is Spain and RTVE, Slovenia and RTVSLO, and Iceland and RÚV. The latest to join was Ireland, through the director general of the country's public television, Kevin Bakhurst, who stated that he was "shocked by the events taking place in the Middle East and by the terrible impact on civilians in Gaza and the fate of the Israeli hostages."

For his part, Eurovision director Martin Green reiterated that the festival should be a space for unity between countries, far from political tensions. He also asserted that "none of the EBU member broadcasters, after being thoroughly consulted, has publicly opposed the participation of the Israeli broadcaster Kan in the Eurovision Song Contest." While acknowledging that the competition is not immune to world events, he emphasized that the EBU's goal is "to ensure that the contest remains, at its core, a universal event that promotes connections, diversity, and inclusion through music."

Despite the controversy surrounding her participation, Yuval Raphael's prospects at the festival are not bad. In fact, the Israeli is very well placed in the bookmakers' rankings and could finish among the top five positions in the competition's ranking thanks to a visually spectacular and highly dramatic entry. Israel has participated in Eurovision since 1973 and has won the festival four times, most recently in 2018 with NettaLast year, when it seemed destined to fail the contest, Israel finished fifth, achieving 375 points, of which 323 came from the televote, the second-highest score of the year (the highest was for Croatia and the third for Ukraine). The 2024 results show that, despite international pressure, Israel still enjoys the public's favor, with twelve countries, including Spain, giving it the highest popular rating.