KAN, the Israeli national broadcaster has released a statement regarding the EBU’s voting on Israel’s participation at the forthcoming 2026 Eurovision edition.
Yesterday the EBU sent out a letter to all its members in order to convene at an extraordinary General Assembly meeting in November in order to vote on Israel’s participation at Eurovision 2026 due to the current geopolitical scenario in the Middle East.
Hereafter KAN released the following statement:
Kan, the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation, expresses its firm hope that the Eurovision Song Contest will continue to uphold its cultural and non-political identity.
The potential disqualification of Israel’s public broadcaster KAN – one of the contest’s long-standing, popular, and successful participants – would be especially troubling ahead of the 70th edition of the song contest, which was founded as a symbol of unity, solidarity, and fellowship. Any such move could have wide-ranging implications for the competition and the values for which the EBU stands.
The EBU Statutes stipulate for a good reason that extraordinary decisions of this kind require a 75% majority of the General Assembly – an exceptional majority. We are confident that the EBU will safeguard the contest’s professional, cultural, and non-political character as it marks the historic 70 years milstone of uniting by music.
Kan, the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation, expresses its firm hope that the Eurovision Song Contest will continue to uphold its cultural and non-political identity.
The potential disqualification of Israel’s public broadcaster KAN – one of the contest’s long-standing,…
— כאן (@kann) September 25, 2025
Numerous European broadcasters including Spain, Iceland, Ireland, The Netherlands and Slovenia have threated to withdraw from the competition if Israel is not excluded from the competition due to the ongoing war in Gaza.
Israel at Eurovision
Israel debuted at the Eurovision Song Contest in 1973 and has won the event four times ( 1978, 1979, 1998 and 2018) and hosted the event thrice ( 1979, 1999, 2019).
In 2025 Yuval Raphael represented Israel at the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest with her entry ‘New Day Will Rise’, achieving an honorable 2nd place in the Grand Final.
