The Icelandic national broadcaster, RUV, has announced today that it will be holding a board meeting in order to determine if it will vote in favour of expelling Israel from the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 or not.
RUV will be covening a board meeting in order to decide if it will vote in favour of excluding Israel from ESC 2026 or not. This meeting is scheduled to take place at the end of October prior to the EBU’s extraordinary General Assembly where its members will vote in favour or against Israel’s participation at ESC 2026.
The EBU’s vote regarding Israel’s participation will be held online early November.
RUV’s press release reads:
It will be decided at a meeting of the board of Ríkisútvarpið (the National Broadcasting Service) at the end of the month whether RÚV will vote in favor of expelling Israel from the Eurovision Song Contest or not.
Stefán Jón Hafstein, the chair of the board, said in an article he published over the weekend that Israel should be excluded from the competition, but noted that he wrote it in his own name.
A vote on Israel’s participation will take place at a meeting of the European Broadcasting Union in November.
In a conversation with RÚV, Stefán Jón said he expects RÚV’s position to be formally recorded at the next board meeting, on the last Wednesday in October.
RÚV has also announced that the submission deadline for Söngvakeppnin 2026 will be postponed until the EBU formally votes on Israel’s participation in Eurovision.
Several countries including Spain, The Netherlands, Ireland and Slovenia have threatened to withdraw from the forthcoming ESC 2026 edition if Israel is not excluded from the competition due to the ongoing war in Gaza.
