Iceland boycotts Eurovision 2026 over Israel's participation

Iceland has become the latest country to boycott the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest in protest at Israel's participation in the contest.

On 10 December, Iceland's public broadcaster RÚV announced that it would withdraw from the 2026 contest in Vienna, along with Spain, Ireland, Slovenia and the Netherlands.

The RÚV statement said that the participation of Israel's national broadcaster KAN in the contest had caused a serious rift between members of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and the public.

According to the BBC, RÚV had previously intended to withdraw from the contest, but the final decision was made after a discussion within the broadcaster's board.

The decision was made following a vote among EBU members on 4 December. As a result of that vote, changes to the contest rules allowed Israel to participate in 2026. Several countries announced their boycotts immediately after the vote.

Following the outbreak of the war in Gaza, several Eurovision contestants have publicly expressed their opposition to Israel's participation in the contest. There have also been allegations that a campaign was being carried out to artificially inflate the results of the public vote for Israel's 2024 representative, Yuval Raphael.

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