Why is Israel in Eurovision? The controversy explained

As a member of the European Broadcasting Union, Israel could have joined the first Eurovision Song Contest in 1956, but delayed its entry for 17 years. And ever since 1973 the impact on Israel and the contest has been marked.

Its participation is not a token invitation, but based on its geographical location as defined by the European Broadcasting Union during the interwar period as they drew up lines to prevent interference in radio transmissions.

Israel came fourth in its debut appearance at the competition in Luxembourg, a place behind Cliff Richard for the UK. However, coming a year after the Munich Massacre, where eleven members of Israel’s Olympic team and a West German police officer were killed by Palestinian terrorists, there were questions raised over the security risks of the country’s inclusion in the event, which have come to the fore again this year.

“Israel thought that television was a luxury and had more important things to do, like defend itself and secure itself, than invest in television. So, there’s this technological story behind it,” explained Dean Vuletic, author of Postwar Europe and the Eurovision Song Contest.

Israel has been a strong contender and defining voice in the competition, winning four times, but this year there have been calls to ban the country from participating over its conduct of the war in Gaza.

“The event was designed to be a celebration of unity and cultural diversity, connecting countries through music,” explained Nadav Gesundheit, who represents Netta Barzilai, Eurovision’s Israeli 2018 winner. “Eurovision was established after World War Two with the goal of strengthening ties between countries, and we must preserve the original spirit of the competition as a stage dedicated to music and not politics.”

Israelis take the competition seriously, viewing it as an indicator of European sentiment towards their country. This year they will be watching more closely than ever.

“There’s a big community of Eurovision fans in Israel, thousands of Israelis, but this year it’s much more complicated,” said Tal Dahan, a journalist at Euromix, an Israeli news site that covers the contest. “Israelis are curious how the country is perceived by the rest of world. The ratings in Israel were very high during the semi final, and will be very high in the final.”

“This year it’s a huge issue and there’s a lot of support for this year’s contender Eden [Golan] across the country.”

This is not the first time Israel has faced opposition to its participation, but Vuletic says that even during the height of political tensions, the country has used the platform to broadcast a message of peace.

“From the very beginning, in the 1970s, Israel often expressed the desire for peace with its neighbours as a theme. We also saw that in the early 2000s,” Vuletic explained, referring to the height of the Second Intifada. “When Israel has been in a difficult situation, it has often sent entries that have had peace as their theme.”

The most controversial entry came in 2007 in Finland, with Israel’s song Push the Button taken as a protest against Iran’s nuclear weapons. That is reminiscent of this year’s entry, which initially appeared to reference the October 7 attacks by Hamas before the title and lyrics were changed.

But the majority of Israel’s entries have been well accepted, even celebrated, and seen as a cultural marker that cemented the contest as a celebratory space for underrepresented communities.

“Some Israeli songs have presented Israel as a diverse society and especially progressive on the issues of sexual minorities, especially Dana International,” said Vuletic, referring to the 1998 winning song Diva that made the Israeli singer a trans icon.

“That was really the first time that Eurovision came to embrace its following among sexual minorities, came to really accept it. And then there was that song Be Happy in 2000 when we saw the first gay kiss, or the kiss between two men on Eurovision.”

For many Israelis, their involvement and success at Eurovision marks their place among western countries. “It’s about underlining that Israel belongs to the West, that it shares the values of the West, and that it also shares the culture of the West.

“It’s all that Eurovision packaged: the combination of politics and culture, and belonging to an institution that really, especially when Israel joined, was west European.”

Security at Eurovision has always been tight. One anecdote has it that the crowd in 1973 were warned to stay in their seats to applaud rather than stand up in case of over-zealous security. But this year in Malmo the atmosphere feels even more politically charged than normal.

“Malmo itself is known as pro-Palestinian and with the protests over the war, people have begun to ignore them and not talk to them, people who we used to meet every year,” said Dahan, who is covering the contest in Sweden. “It’s never been this bad before. Israelis feel it’s important we represent ourselves and feel like we belong here.”

Yet despite unprecedented international fallout and protests against Israel in Malmo and across the world, the country is now second favourite to win after Croatia.

“The Eurovision fanbase see the contest as a place that should be non-political, where all countries should be participate, where we should all be united,” said Vuletic.

“The expectation was that Israel would somehow be punished for its role in the war in Gaza by not receiving votes. But what we expected to be some sort of test of European public opinion against Israel, actually looks like it’s going to demonstrate the support of European public opinion for Israel.”