The organization of the Eurovision Song Contest has issued a formal warning to Israeli broadcaster KAN for violating the rules. Eurovision Song Contest boss Martin Green said this to Norwegian TV 2.
The reason for the warning is videos on social media in which Israeli participant Noam Bettan calls on countries in different languages to vote for Israel, Green said.
“We were made aware of videos with the artist representing KAN calling for ten votes for Israel. We contacted the Israeli delegation and asked them to immediately stop distributing the videos and remove them from all platforms where they were published. They did so,” said Green.
According to the Eurovision boss, a direct call to use the ten available votes for an artist or song is not in line with the rules or spirit of the competition. Green said a formal warning had been given to the responsible broadcaster KAN and further activity was being closely monitored.
There has already been a lot of buzz about the upcoming edition of the Eurovision Song Contest due to Israel’s participation. Several countries, including the Netherlands, decided to boycott the event. The first semi-final is on Tuesday in Vienna.
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