• Resol van Lemmy@lemmy.world
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    3 hours ago

    Countries are finally speaking up about this, I’ve been waiting for like, 2 years already.

    Israel has undeniably brought the contest into disrepute twice in a row with them sending basically political entries with shady ad campaigns that made a select few voters disproportionately vote for Israel, causing them to spike up in the ranking (almost winning the 2025 contest; JJ is our savior), and yet the EBU just doesn’t even care about this? And when Russia did the whole “let’s take all of Ukraine” move, it took 10 countries to immediately speak up for them to get suspended. Ukraine won that year btw. Like… if the EBU are gonna keep saying the Eurovision Song Contest is “apolitical”, then they have to accept the harsh reality that making your participants be countries immediately makes it otherwise. And this is not the exception, it’s the norm. Both the Olympic Games and the FIFA World Cup have had similar disrepute incidents in the past, most notably with apartheid South Africa.

    Either way, if more countries drop out due to Israel’s continued participate, that could ultimately result in enough awareness for the EBU to finally kick them out for good. Otherwise, the only solution is the privatization of their broadcaster, which literally nobody wants.

  • biofaust@lemmy.world
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    6 hours ago

    They should really say that they will pull out of the show if israel and the zionists are allowed to sponsor the show through Moroccanoil and Estee Lauder.

    THAT would hurt.

  • MetalMachine@feddit.nl
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    10 hours ago

    Why is israel, a country in the middle east, a part of Eurovision to begin with? Very telling.

    • excral@feddit.org
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      8 hours ago

      Because they are part of the European Broadcast Union (EBU), just like other non-European countries including Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia and Georgia. That said, just like Russia, their membership should be suspended.

      I’m completely fine with non-European countries participating. Australia (the one with the kangaroos) isn’t even an EBU member, but has been participating in the Eurovision for the last ten years and I think it’s great to see the world grow closer like that.

      • Resol van Lemmy@lemmy.world
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        3 hours ago

        Tunisia and Lebanon tried to participate in 1977 and 2005 respectively (the latter even selected Aline Lahoud as their representative), but their participations were ultimately thrown out the window once they found out that Israel was there.

        Morocco actually did participate in 1980, when Israel left after literally winning the second year in a row. Morocco never returned, even after recognizing Israel, and even in the later years when Israel was absent.

        Algeria, Libya, Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, and the Vatican City all can participate since they have broadcasters that are a part of the EBU, but they choose not to, mostly due to Israel participating, which half of these countries don’t recognize. Also who would the Vatican even send to Eurovision, one of their Cardinals? Oh yeah, Kazakhstan, an EBU associate, even participated in Junior Eurovision, but never in the adult contest. They are in the running for a special invitation though, whether it actually happens is something only time will tell.

    • nshibj@lemmy.world
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      10 hours ago

      It’s a nonsense joke. Australia is also there. Just kill Eurovision and call it something else for fucks sake

    • nfh@lemmy.world
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      10 hours ago

      Australia, Armenia, and Morocco are all outside of Europe, and have completed too. Basically all European countries are eligible, plus those whose public broadcasters are part of the European Broadcasting Union.

        • nfh@lemmy.world
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          3 hours ago

          I mean, it’s in western Asia, next to Azerbaijan and Georgia. “Complicated definitions of Europe” are part of the point here, but it’s pretty clearly not Europe in my mind, but given the Turkish border, it’s not far from Europe like Australia is

  • Localhorst86@feddit.org
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    9 hours ago

    So that’s how many members already? -4- 5?

    -Spain
    -Ireland
    -Slovenia
    -Netherlands
    -Iceland

    Hope there will be more.

  • Cosmoooooooo@lemmy.world
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    12 hours ago

    It very important to note that Israel is NOT part of Europe. It’s in the Middle East, which is in ASIA.

    • dubyakay@lemmy.ca
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      10 hours ago

      Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia. Heck, Australia… If these are Europe, then so is Israel.

      That said, I don’t think we should exclude Israel from participating in Eurovision on a geographic basis. We should exclude them instead because they are an ethnofascist apartheid colony that’s committing genocide on its population.

      • python@lemmy.world
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        7 hours ago

        They were also very clearly rigging the votes in the last Eurovision by having an online campaign aimed at making people vote for them (advertising like that is forbidden by Eurovision rules)

  • slaneesh_is_right@lemmy.org
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    15 hours ago

    As shit as the European song contest is, i hope everyone does the same and only israel will vompete with no one.

    • NoiseColor @lemmy.world
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      14 hours ago

      Slovenia was first 🙂, but I think they weren’t definitive about it. Probably they wanted to wait so they wouldn’t be the only one.

    • MrMakabar@slrpnk.net
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      14 hours ago

      Israel gets kicked out way before that. They have a population of 10million. Spain and the Netherlands are much larger then that. More viewers = more money

        • BakerBagel@midwest.social
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          10 hours ago

          You can easily replace a sponsor. Or better yet, dont! The shows didn’t have a sponsor 10 years ago. Ads are ruining everything

          • VeganCheesecake@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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            9 hours ago

            That’d be nice, but they, maroccanoil, have been main sponsor for the last five years, and are confirmed to again be this year. Dunno what the chances are of that changing at this point.

            Also - I’m pretty sure they had corporate sponsors 10 years ago. They aren’t shown in some countries broadcasts, but they’ve been there for some time.

      • Kyrgizion@lemmy.world
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        14 hours ago

        Maybe, but Israel has unlimited funds to throw at PR thanks to the USA, so I’m not sure population is going to be a deciding factor there.

        • azertyfun@sh.itjust.works
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          3 hours ago

          That’s treading dangerously close to a specific kind of conspiracy theory there.

          The EBU has pretty strong financial ties to Israel, not least of which their main sponsor Moroccan Oil. But at the end of the day you can count on the ghouls in charge to always find the coward’s way out and follow the money. It’s the exact same pattern of behavior they had with Russia in 2022, which they initially allowed to compete before backpedalling.

          Pretending that this is an issue solely because of some conspiracy is not only baseless, but it also unfairly lets most European broadcasters off the hook for refusing to uphold the set the same hard lines with Israel that they set with Russia. Israel competed because European broadcasters were happy enough to include Israel. Simple as.

    • galoisghost@aussie.zone
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      14 hours ago

      Australia are gonna sit quietly in the corner and not say a word in the hopes that Europe forgets we’re still allowed to compete

  • coyootje@lemmy.world
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    14 hours ago

    As a Dutch person, I’m very glad we’ve made this decision. After reading about Ireland doing the same I didn’t think we would but I’m glad that we did and also that we’ve decided on this somewhat early instead of waiting to see what the “bigger” countries are doing like we usually do with these things.

  • madjo@feddit.nl
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    12 hours ago

    Oh wow, AVROTROS (the broadcaster) finally found a spine? Where was this last year after the incident with Joost Klein?

    • pulsewidth@lemmy.world
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      9 hours ago

      I don’t think they found a spine so much as they’ve seen the turning of the tide in the media re: Israel Palestine conflict, with several major media outlets running pieces agreeing that it’s a genocide in the last month or so (BBC, Sky, Reuters, etc).

      Aside - I also would like to understand what the turning point was with these media groups where they suddenly pivoted from “Israel are purely defending themselves” to “this is a campaign of genocide”. Its like they hit some arbitrary number. 67,026 = self defence, 67,027 = oh gosh oh wow that’s genocide.

    • WhiskyTangoFoxtrot@lemmy.world
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      7 hours ago

      I guess they should just do nothing then. Why is this always the immediate response whenever anyone begins to do the right thing?

  • ctry21@sh.itjust.works
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    14 hours ago

    They are the 6th biggest contributor, and Spain has considered doing similar and they’re one of the big five. It might actually change something since money will matter the most, and enough countries are dropping out that they may not have enough contestants to run the semi-finals. There’s rumours that Italy, Germany, and Britain may withdraw if Israel is kicked out though. Maybe we just won’t have a contest next year, and after the bullshit of the past two years I’m completely fine with that.

  • FreeBeard@slrpnk.net
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    15 hours ago

    Nice. Go make a better one with Blackjack and Hookers (all genders).

  • Erasmus@lemmy.world
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    14 hours ago

    Am not a European but are other Middle Eastern countries allowed to compete? Why would Israel even be considered a part of this to begin with, it doesn’t quite make sense.

    • madjo@feddit.nl
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      12 hours ago

      Israel (and most notably the Israeli company Moroccan Oil) is a big sponsor for the EBU, the organiser of the Eurovision Song Contest.

      Only countries signed up with the EBU (European Broadcasting Union) can participate, and that’s not limited to European nations.

    • Sv443@sh.itjust.works
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      13 hours ago

      Has nothing to do with Europe or the EU. One of their broadcasters is simply in the EBU, so they’re allowed to participate.

    • VeganCheesecake@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      13 hours ago

      If I remember correctly, it’s a European Broadcasting Union thing, and they’re in cause there used to be a British colony there.

    • zonnewin@feddit.nl
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      12 hours ago

      From what I’ve read, countries bordering the Mediterranean, including North-African countries, are allowed to compete, but they don’t want to, mostly because they would have to broadcast the Israeli entry.