Five Countries Boycott Eurovision Over Israel — The Contest Goes On Without Them

The Boycott That Didn't Work

Five countries — Ireland, Spain, the Netherlands, Iceland, and Slovenia — sat out the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest over Israel's inclusion in the competition.

The boycott failed. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) didn't blink. Israel is competing Saturday in Vienna.

Instead of forcing Israel out, the boycott left a gap that Moldova, Bulgaria, and Romania stepped into. All three passed their semifinals. The show goes on with or without the protesters.

What Ireland Is Actually Doing

Ireland's public broadcaster RTÉ isn't airing the Eurovision final on Saturday, May 16. Instead, it's running a rerun of a 1996 Father Ted episode called A Song for Europe — a parody of Eurovision itself.

That decision enraged Graham Linehan, the show's co-creator.

"I think that the current fad in Ireland for antisemitism is a global embarrassment," Linehan told Newstalk radio this week. He called RTÉ's move "an antisemitic political gesture" and demanded the resignation of RTÉ Director General Kevin Bakhurst.

Linehan didn't mince words: "The idea that Father Ted would be used in any way to further harass the Jewish people who are living in Ireland and feeling very, very concerned about their safety — I think it's one of the most disgusting things I've ever seen."

According to Breitbart, Linehan also accused RTÉ of turning his show into "an antisemitic dog whistle." That's the show's own creator saying that. Not a fringe voice.

Israel's Soft Power Play

A New York Times investigation, cited by Ynet News, found that the Netanyahu government ran a coordinated diplomatic campaign last fall and winter to keep Israel in Eurovision. Senior Israeli diplomats lobbied European broadcasters. The effort used advertising, coordinated messaging, and direct diplomatic outreach.

Israel treated Eurovision as a soft-power tool — a way to show ordinary Europeans still supported Israel even as political leaders across the continent grew hostile.

The boycott countries did the exact same thing from the other direction. Ireland, Spain, and the others ran coordinated pressure campaigns on the EBU to expel Israel. According to the WSJ, Eurovision has been colored by political rivalries and soft-power games for decades.

CNN led with Israel's "continued participation" framing — presenting the boycott as a natural response to Israeli conduct. NBC News noted the controversy over Israel "leveraging" the contest for soft power. Both outlets gave significant airtime to the boycott rationale while spending considerably less on what Linehan put plainly: "What kicked it off, this current wave of sudden interest in the Middle East? Not something that Israel did to the Palestinians, but an atrocity carried out by the Palestinians against Israel."

The Numbers Tell a Story

According to CNN, only 35 countries traveled to Vienna — the lowest number of competitors since 2004. Last year's contest drew 166 million TV viewers. Tickets for Saturday's final are still available, which CNN's source Frank Dermody, president of the Irish Eurovision Fanclub, called "kind of unheard of."

Normally around 800 Irish fans travel to the host city. This year? About 40 made the trip.

Austria, the host country, made its position clear back in October: if Israel were expelled, Austria would drop the event altogether. The EBU held the line.

What Mainstream Media Is Getting Wrong

Left-leaning outlets like CNN and NBC News frame this primarily as a story about Israel's war in Gaza and its diplomatic maneuvering inside Eurovision.

The EBU has a rules problem that predates this controversy. According to NBC News, voting rules were changed after allegations of an organized influence effort — but those same rules could be gamed by any coordinated bloc. Eastern European countries have voted in blocs for years. The diaspora voting system has been criticized across the board.

Right-leaning coverage, including Breitbart, leans hard into the antisemitism angle and frames every boycott supporter as a Hamas sympathizer. People can oppose Israeli military conduct in Gaza without supporting Hamas. Conflating the two is sloppy.

A decades-old entertainment competition has become a proxy war for geopolitics, and Israel, the boycott countries, the EBU, and the broadcasters have all been playing politics.

What This Means for Regular People

If you're Irish and wanted to watch Eurovision on RTÉ Saturday night, you're getting a 30-year-old sitcom rerun instead — a decision made by a public broadcaster you fund through your taxes, on behalf of a political position you may or may not hold.

The five boycotting countries accomplished nothing concrete. Israel is still in the contest. The EBU didn't capitulate. Three replacement countries filled the slots.

Fans who wanted to watch the competition lost out. Last year 166 million people tuned in. This year, 35 countries are participating, the lowest number since 2004.