Eurovision announces it won’t censor boos against Israel amid boycott calls
Eurovision 2026 logo
Dalia Anis reports in Middle East Eye on 17 December 2025:
The Austrian public broadcaster ORF, host of the 2026 edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, has confirmed it will not censor out any booing aimed at Israel’s performance, as has happened in previous competitions.
The pop music spectacle, which attracts over 100 million viewers annually, is facing its biggest crisis to date over Israel’s inclusion despite growing international boycott calls and high-profile walkouts.
Five European countries, including Spain and the Netherlands, have already said they will boycott the event over Israel’s presence due to the genocide in Gaza.
Stefanie Groiss-Horowitz, ORF’s director of programming, said on Tuesday that the sound of any booing from the crowd would not be drowned out – a practice observed during Israel’s performance in this year’s semi-final performance by Yuval Raphael.
“We won’t play artificial applause over it at any point,” she said. The competition’s organisers in 2024 had denied that booing from the audience was censored after online accusation following Israel’s performance at the semi-finals.
The ORF also said that it will allow the audience to wave “all official flags” so long as they comply with security parametres, widely interpreted to mean the Palestinian flag would not be banned – a continuation of the policy from this year. The competition’s organisers received fierce backlash in 2024 for banning Palestinians flags in the audience.
With growing fears that the boycott calls will cast a shadow on the 70th edition of the song contest, the show’s executive producer, Michael Kroen, said they aim to not “sugarcoat anything or avoid showing what is happening, because our task is to show things as they are”.