Simply while you thought Eurovision had reached peak absurdity – with its glitter-drenched cliches, outlandish lyrics, and performances that make your native karaoke evening look refined – it sank even decrease in 2025. This yr, Israel not solely participated amid its ongoing assault on Gaza and worldwide legislation, it almost gained.
Within the lead-up to the competition, activists throughout Europe referred to as for Israel’s exclusion. Seventy-two former Eurovision contestants signed an open letter demanding that Israel – and its nationwide broadcaster, KAN – be banned. Protests, petitions, and campaigns swept throughout the continent, urging the competition to uphold its supposed values of “European unity and tradition” quite than highlight a state accused of systematically ravenous and bombing a captive inhabitants of two million.
However Eurovision didn’t hear.
As a substitute, it handed the stage to 24-year-old Yuval Raphael – a survivor of Hamas’s October 7 assault on the Nova Music Pageant – who gained the general public televote in most international locations and positioned second total, edged out solely as a result of, not like the general public, {most professional} juries most well-liked Austria’s entry.
Understandably, Israel’s shocking near-victory triggered a wave of backlash. With populations which were most vocal of their criticism of Israel’s actions in Gaza – resembling Eire – supposedly giving the very best marks to Raphael, widespread accusations of vote-rigging emerged. Nationwide broadcasters in Spain and Belgium filed formal complaints with the European Broadcasting Union, demanding an investigation into potential manipulation of the televoting system. In the meantime, The Intercept’s audio evaluation revealed that Eurovision organisers had muted viewers booing and chants of “Free Palestine” throughout Raphael’s reside efficiency.
Within the aftermath of this yr’s contest, the requires Israel’s exclusion from Eurovision are louder than ever earlier than. Clearly, for a lot of throughout Europe who love Eurovision – whether or not for its camp, spectacle, or nostalgic attraction – however who additionally care about worldwide legislation and Palestinian lives, Israel’s continued inclusion is an ethical failure.
And but, I imagine Israel belongs in Eurovision and may keep within the competitors going ahead. Right here’s why.
For one factor, Israel’s continued participation would mirror the truth of European coverage. Regardless of rising public outrage, many European leaders have been unwavering of their assist for Israel all through its devastating marketing campaign in Gaza. Whereas international locations like Spain and the Republic of Eire have referred to as for a reassessment of the European Union’s relationship with Israel, for many of Europe, it’s been enterprise as common.
In February 2025, regardless of mounting stress from human rights teams, European international ministers met with their Israeli counterpart and insisted that “political and financial ties stay robust”. A number of months later, seven EU international locations issued a joint assertion calling for an finish to what they described as a “man-made humanitarian disaster” in Gaza. However with out motion, these phrases rang hole.
Europe can also be divided on whether or not it could honor the Worldwide Legal Courtroom’s arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Belgium, the Netherlands, Eire, Lithuania, Slovenia, and Spain indicated they’d comply. The UK, as common, hedged, saying solely that it could “adjust to authorized obligations underneath home and worldwide legislation”. In the meantime, Hungary, underneath Prime Minister Viktor Orban, flatly refused to implement the warrant. And amongst Europe’s largest gamers – France, Germany, and Italy – the response has ranged from evasive to outright dismissive. France claimed Netanyahu enjoys immunity since Israel isn’t an ICC member; Italy stated arresting him can be “unfeasible”; and Germany’s newly elected Chancellor Friedrich Merz even vowed to search out “methods and means” for Netanyahu to go to.
Given how European leaders have proven much more enthusiasm for cracking down on Palestine solidarity activists than holding Israel accountable, it feels solely becoming that Israel continues to sing and dance on the ruins of Palestinian lives – hand in hand with its European buddies.
However this alliance isn’t simply political. Those that are selling it recommend it’s additionally cultural, and even “civilisational”.
Many Western intellectuals have lengthy forged Israel as an outpost of European values in a supposedly savage area. After October 7, this narrative was renewed with contemporary urgency. French public mental Bernard-Henri Levy, whereas insisting he’s a “militant defender of human rights”, framed Israel – apartheid and all – as an ethical beacon when in comparison with the same old “others”: Russians, Turks, Chinese language, Persians, and Arabs. Their imperial ambitions, he argued, pose a far larger risk to “civilisation” than Israel’s “coverage of colonising the West Financial institution”. He even praised Israel’s “ethical fortitude” and supposed concern for civilian life in Gaza – phrases that haven’t aged nicely after 19 months of pure carnage.
American commentator Josh Hammer’s guide, Israel and Civilization: The Destiny of the Jewish Nation and the Future of the West, is much more express. For him, Israel is the West’s “agent” in a area tormented by violence and Islamic “terrorism”. Those that assist Palestinian rights are, in his phrases, “anti-American, anti-Western jackals”. UK commentator Douglas Murray echoes the identical civilisational framing within the guide On Democracies and Demise Cults: Israel and the Way forward for Civilization, calling Israel a bulwark of excellent in a world of evil.
Israeli leaders have adopted this language, too. Netanyahu declared shortly after October 7 that “Israel is combating the enemies of civilisation itself”, urging the West to point out “ethical readability”. In line with this world view, Israel doesn’t simply defend itself – it defends your entire Western civilisation.
All this will sound far faraway from a music contest. However Eurovision has all the time been greater than sequins and key adjustments. It’s a projection of “Europeanness” – and “Europe,” as an idea, has all the time been political. It’s constructed on a colonial legacy that imagined Europe as enlightened, orderly, and rational – outlined in opposition to the supposedly backward, emotional, and irrational non-European “different”.
This legacy justified colonial conquests and the violent suppression of anti-colonial uprisings. Massacres had been forged as the worth of restoring order; ethnic cleaning, a civilizing mission. At present, that very same narrative lives on in how the West frames Israel – as a beleaguered democracy standing bravely in opposition to barbarism.
So when folks name for Israel to be banned from Eurovision over this yr’s vote-rigging allegations, I can’t assist however be aware the irony: that its genocidal marketing campaign in Gaza didn’t cross a pink line for Europe – however dishonest in a music contest simply would possibly.
If Eurovision had been to expel Israel now, it could be the harshest penalty the continent has ever imposed on the nation – and it could be not for mass killing, however for meddling with pop music.
And so, sure – I imagine Israel ought to keep in Eurovision.
In spite of everything, Europe and Israel deserve one another.
The views expressed on this article are the creator’s personal and don’t essentially mirror Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.
