section_path: Reception/Controversies on Israeli participation
section_name: Controversies on Israeli participation
paragraph_text: Controversies on Israeli participation
  
  Due to the continuing Gaza war, Israel's participation in the contest remained controversial, with calls for the exclusion of the country from the event. The Slovenian broadcaster RTVSLO submitted a demand for the EBU to exclude Israel, while Spanish broadcaster RTVE, Irish broadcaster RTÉ, Icelandic broadcaster RÚV, and Flemish Belgian broadcaster VRT called for a wider discussion among EBU members regarding Israel's participation. The EBU committed to a discussion regarding Israel's involvement "in due course", but reiterated that it is "an association of public service broadcasters, not governments", and that all EBU member broadcasters are eligible to compete. 72 former Eurovision contestants signed a letter calling for Israel's exclusion, including former winners Charlie McGettigan and Salvador Sobral; the previous edition's winner Nemo later issued their own call in support of excluding Israel.
  
  Following a complaint filed by the Israeli broadcaster Kan, the EBU warned RTVE that it would be fined if its commentators Tony Aguilar and Julia Varela "mention the Gaza conflict again", following their remarks ahead of Israel's performance in the second semi-final, where they mentioned the number of casualties of the war. Ahead of the final, RTVE aired a message that read "When human rights are at stake, silence is not an option. Peace and justice for Palestine". During the final, Israel's performance was met with some booing by the audience; the Swiss host broadcaster SRG SSR replaced this in the television broadcast with pre-recorded applause. Following his win, JJ stated that he would like the 2026 contest to be hosted "in Vienna and without Israel".
  
  Israel ultimately won the televote and finished in second place overall. Following the contest, RTVE and VRT announced that they would request an audit on the televoting results in their countries, both of which gave their 12 points to Israel, with the former stating that other countries "would be joining them"; VRT additionally called for "full transparency" on the EBU's part, and that it would reconsider its participation in future editions, noting that the contest is "increasingly at odds with the original standards and values of the event, as well as those of public broadcasting." RÚV and Walloon Belgian broadcaster RTBF issued statements in support of the decision. Finnish broadcaster Yle stated it would ask the EBU to rework the televoting system "to avoid its abuse", but it would not emphasise Israel's role in the results; Norwegian broadcaster NRK later came out in support of a review of the voting system. Dutch broadcasters AVROTROS and NPO also joined calls for a wider discussion among EBU members regarding Israel's participation. RTÉ later joined RTVE and VRT in requesting an audit on the televoting results. Several parties alleged influence operations as a factor in Israel's high televoting score; the Spanish newspaper El País pointed to mobilisation campaigns by the Israeli government and several European far-right affiliated media outlets. Some Belgian MPs also mentioned an influence campaign by Israeli authorities and questioned the country's participation, while MPs from the Spanish left-wing alliance Sumar registered a proposal to demand a reform in the contest and the removal of Israel from it. Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez also called for Israel's exclusion following the contest, saying that "double standards" were being applied by excluding Russia following its 2022 invasion of Ukraine, but not Israel due to its conduct in the Gaza war, which has been characterised as genocidal.
  
  On 19 May 2025, Eurovision News Spotlight, a fact-checking and open-source intelligence initiative by the EBU, published an investigation which found evidence that the Israel Government Advertising Agency conducted a cross-platform advertising campaign on Google platforms and utilised official state social media accounts to encourage public support for Israel's entry in the contest, and provided instructions on how voters could cast all 20 of their allowed votes for Israel. As part of the investigation, Eurovision News Spotlight analysed a YouTube account created on 20 April 2025, under the username @Vote4NewDayWillRise. Between 6 and 16 May, the account published 89 videos, which collectively garnered over 8.3 million views. The analysis, conducted using open-source tools, found no evidence that artificial intelligence was used for the advertisements, suggesting that the Israeli representative Yuval Raphael was personally involved in the creation of the promotional videos. The Israeli government had previously admitted to attempting to boost the public vote for the Israeli entry through a promotional campaign during the 2024 contest.