Eurovision 2026: Israel’s Broadcaster Issued With Formal Warning

Israel’s delegation at the Eurovision Song Contest has been issued a formal warning in the lead-up to this year’s event.

The continued presence of Israel at Eurovision despite the ongoing conflict in the Middle East remains a contentious issue, with many calling for a boycott of the competition this year.

Moreover, the Israeli delegation at the last few contests has raised eyebrows due to concerns about voting and the behaviour of its members behind the scenes.

Over the weekend, it was announced that Israel’s national broadcaster Kan had been rebuked by Eurovision bosses over a campaign video encouraging viewers to vote 10 times for Israel during the upcoming live event.

Viewers cannot vote for their own country in the Eurovision televoting, meaning this video will have been targeted towards those outside of Israel ahead of the first live semi-final on Tuesday.

“On Friday 8 May it was brought to our attention that videos with an on-screen instruction to ‘vote 10 times for Israel’ had been published and released by the artist representing Kan,” a Eurovision spokesperson said.

“Within 20 minutes we had contacted the Kan delegation to ask them to immediately stop any distribution of the videos and remove them from any platforms where they had been published. They immediately acted to do this.”

The statement continued: “The Voting Instructions of the Eurovision Song Contest that cover promotion are predominantly directed at discouraging large scale funded third-party campaigns, and we are satisfied that this video did not form part of such a campaign.

“However, employing a direct call to action to vote 10 times for one artist or song is also not in line with our rules nor the spirit of the competition. The scale of our vote means that such activity cannot affect the overall result and 50% of all votes this year are supplied through professional juries.”

Eurovision then confirmed that a “formal warning letter” had been issued to Kan, with producers continuing “to monitor any promotional activities carefully and take appropriate action where needed”.

Last year, a vote took place among competing national broadcasters about whether Israel should remain part of Eurovision.

In the end, it was ruled that they would remain, with five countries withdrawing from Eurovision in the days that followed, in solidarity with Palestine.