The Netherlands will not take part in next year’s Eurovision Song Contest following the decision by organiser EBU not to exclude Israel.

Public broadcasting company NPO said no other broadcaster will step in to send a Dutch entry after AvroTros’s withdrawal, although it will ensure the contest is still broadcast for Dutch viewers.

European public broadcasters met at the EBU headquarters in Geneva to discuss the future of Eurovision on Thursday. AvroTros, together with broadcasters from Ireland, Iceland, Spain and Slovenia, had argued that Israel’s public broadcaster should be barred because of the war in Gaza.

AvroTros also said the Israeli government had used the contest as a “political instrument”, pointing to a government-run promotional campaign for the country’s entry.

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[–] 24 points 11 months ago (4 children)

But why agree to still broadcast it? Doesn't sound like a very well thought out boycott. Instead, they should host their own Eurovision. With blackjack and hookers :)

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  • [–] 8 points 11 months ago (2 children)

    Avrotros will not be broadcasting it, a separate branch of the NPO will broadcast it on a much less prominent channel. The broadcasting and performance rights for the EBU and especially Eurovision a very complicated.

    In the UK, the BBC is responsible for sending contestants and broadcasting Eurovision. But if tomorrow they decided they do not want to participate or broadcast it, SKY or another major British TV network/EBU member would likely take the broadcast since it would be little effort on their part, but they would not have the tome or resources to send a contestant due to the short turn around.

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  • [+] 17 points 11 months ago (3 children)
  • [–] 3 points 11 months ago

    They rejected the secret voting on whether to allow them to participate or not. So it was a public voting. After that, Spain, Ireland, Netherlands and Slovenia have already left the contest. Belgium and some others will announce their position soon.

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  • [–] 3 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    They aren't for some reason. Them committing genocide seems to be the main reason that people like to boycott Israel, and i get those people, but i personally think the massive voter manipulation would be a much more sensible basis to exclude them. EBU has rules but are letting Israel get away with it. I wonder if it has something to do with where their biggest sponsors are from.

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  • [–] 2 points 11 months ago*

    Another possibility is that the massive operation by Israel to get blackmail material on Western politicians doing things such as pedofilia also caught EBU members (or at least people who have power over said EBU members) on its net.

    As the Epstein thing unravels more and more what we're seeing is that holding a ton of blackmail material gathered by operations like that (and the whole Epstein affair clearly shows that a lot of it would be pedofilia-related) is the best explanation for Israel's influence.

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  • [–] 13 points 11 months ago

    Israel really stinks up the place.

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  • [–] 2 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    Wait, there's a war in Gaza?

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  • [–] 2 points 11 months ago* (2 children)

    The right thing to do.

    However, the downside is that this is bad news for the Israeli public broadcaster(KAN). Eurovision is one of the few things that has allowed them to maintain a measure of indepence. They kept winning/doing well, so Netenyahu had to delay full privatisation, despite their sometimes being critical of him.

    I suspect that if further countries boycott Eurovision, the KAN will definitively fall, and Israel will slip further into authoritarianism.

    It's hard to feel too sorry for Israelis though. Just like with American politics right now, I can't help but think it's them reaping what they've sown.

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  • [–] 1 point 11 months ago

    I get your point though, good people suffer on the bad guys side too. But I don't think there are many options to support the (relatively) good guys at KAN from Europe's side. Although i wish EBU cared, they could be a real force for good in a country like Israel, but also Turkey or Georgia for example.

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  • [–] 1 point 11 months ago

    🇳🇱

    Was hoping for a orange flag emoji

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