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SvennoJ on 06 May 2025
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Dozens of ex-contestants demand Israel be excluded from Eurovision

More than 70 former Eurovision contestants, including songwriters, lyricists and other artists, have called on the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) to ban Israel’s public broadcaster KAN from the popular song contest, accusing it of being “complicit in Israel’s genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza”.

In a letter published by Artists for Palestine UK ahead of the Eurovision finals on May 17, the signatories said that “by continuing to platform the representation of the Israeli state, the EBU is normalising and whitewashing its crimes”.

Charlie McGettigan, who won the singing competition for Ireland in 1994, said: “I believe that the Israeli government has been and is inflicting genocide on the people of Palestine and for that reason Israel should be barred from competing in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest.”

The letter also said that last year’s decision to include KAN and granting “total impunity to the Israeli delegation while repressing other artists” made the 2024 edition “the most politicized and unpleasant in the competition’s history”.

It accused the EBU of double standards regarding Israel, referring to its decision to expel Russia’s public broadcaster from the competition after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

“[It] can’t be one rule for Russia and a completely different rule for Israel. You bomb, you’re out,” said Thea Garrett, who represented Malta in 2010.

The signatories say they “refuse to allow music to be used to whitewash crimes against humanity” and urge EBU to “act now and prevent further discredit and disruption to the festival”.

The release of the letter comes days after Iceland’s broadcaster RUV followed Slovenia and Spain in opposing Israel’s participation in the competition.



Turkish intelligence twarted second Lebanon pager attack: Report

Turkish media outlets report that Turkish Intelligence stopped the second wave of explosive pagers targeting Lebanon.

In September, at least nine people were killed and some 3,000 injured, including the Iranian ambassador to Lebanon, when thousands of pagers exploded – nearly simultaneously – in Lebanon.

Daily Sabah and Hurriyet Daily News report that, shortly after the attack, Turkish authorities intercepted shipments labeled as “food choppers” but revealed them to contain 1,300 Gold Apollo 924 R3 GP pagers.

These devices, similar to ones previously used in explosions targeting Hezbollah operatives, were equipped with chargers, cables, and other materials.