Eurovision: The Netherlands keeps refusing to participate due to Israel

“[The Dutch public station] AVROTROS will not participate in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2027 because the event can no longer be considered neutral, with a participating country still involved in a large-scale military conflict”, can be read in the statement released today.

Cited in the same text, the Director-General of the Dutch public station, Taco Zimmerman, pointed out that the Eurovision became a “platform to divide”, rather than fulfilling his original mission to “approach people and countries”.

The Dutch station considers that the recent changes announced by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) do not go far enough to guarantee the confidence “that the neutral and independent character of Eurovision has been restored”.

“ The severe humanitarian suffering in Gaza and the ongoing restrictions on press freedom have contributed to increasing divisions around Eurovision in recent years. [...] This underlines the need for a clear framework to assess the participation of countries involved in military conflicts. Under what circumstances is participation compatible with a neutral Eurovision and when is it not? For AVROTROS, it remains unclear what the basis for the evaluation of the EBU ", adds, in the same text.

Israel’s participation in the contest again this year was challenged and called for exclusion, leading five countries – Spain (one of the members of the ‘Big5’ group, who contribute most financially to the production of the show), Ireland, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Iceland – to boycott the contest.

The boycotts were due to Israel's military attacks on the Palestinian territory of the Gaza Strip, which killed at least 72,000 people since October 2023 and were classified as genocide by an independent international research commission of the United Nations.

The EBU announced earlier this month that the Bulgarian city of Burgas, near the Black Sea, was chosen to host the 71st edition of the Eurovision Song Contest on May 11, 13 and 15, 2027.

The announcement of the city chosen for the next edition of the Eurovision festival takes place one day after the EBU announced changes to the regulation, including the possibility that the winning country will be prevented from organising it if it is in “armed conflict, sensitive geopolitical situation or other circumstances that materially affect security or stability” local or surrounding region.

The competition has been held annually since 1956 and there have already been excluded countries, case of Belarus, in 2021, after the re-election of President Aleksandr Lukashenko, and Russia, in 2022, after the invasion of Ukraine.