Recommendations of the Editorial team
Not much was missing, and Israel would have won the ESC in 2025. Singer Yuval Raphael came second with her title “New Day Will Rise”, but the winner was pop opera performer JJ from Austria.
The end result now causes criticism days after the decision at the Eurovision Song Contest. Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez called for Israel’s exclusion from the competition. The state Spanish TV broadcaster RTVE, which supported the ESC and showed the show, also announced that the audience voting would be applied for.
Specifically, Sánchez demanded that from Israel at the ESC because the country still wages war in the Gaza strip. The military offensive even took further bombing on the night of the ESC final, he emphasized.
Anyone who excludes Russia because of the Ukraine invasion must also do so with Israel, according to the socialist politician. “We are not allowed to allow double standards in culture.”
General criticism of the ESC participation of Israel
In the run -up to the ESC this year, the European Radio Union (EBU) threatened the Spanish broadcaster that political messages would result in high fines during the live broadcasts. The trigger was an indication of the victims of the Gaza conflict that RTVE showed in the second semi-finals.
How “World” reports, the Spanish broadcaster did not stick to it. So there is a clear message before the ESC final is broadcast: “Given the human rights, silence is not an option. Peace and justice for Palestine.”
RTVE now wants to submit an application to check the televoting at EBU. As a reason, it was said in a statement: “Several countries will also make the same application, since they believe that televoting was influenced by the current military conflicts and this could endanger the cultural character of the event.”
Criticism also from Belgium
Resistance also came from Belgium. The public service broadcaster VRT announced that it would make sense in the future. You have open questions about the audience voting, which would first have to be answered. We are talking about susceptibility to manipulation.
There is no evidence that the vote was not made correctly, according to VRT, but the EBU is required to be full. “The main question is whether the current voting system guarantees a fair image of the opinions of the audience and listeners.”
As the statement also says, the European Radio Union responsible for the ESC broadcast now wants to start discussions with the transmitters involved. On the VRT website, it also says that the demand is supported by a debate about the participation of Israel’s participation in the ESC.
Was there a manipulation of the audience voting?
Israel participant Yuval Raphael received the most votes from the viewers from the 37 participants. Could be tuned to several paths, such as by call, app or SMS. Unlike in the past, up to 20 votes are now possible. As it is said, Raphael also had the edge in the public, including Spain, Belgium and Ireland, in the audience voting.
Last year, among other things, the Belgian broadcaster VRT called for Israel to examine the exclusion of the war in Gaza.