Israel can compete in this year’s Eurovision song contest, organisers have said, despite calls for it to be excluded over the Gaza war as Russia was after invading Ukraine.
The European Broadcasting Union said on Thursday it had conducted a review and decided Israel could participate in the kitsch annual pop extravaganza.
“The Eurovision song contest is a non-political music event and a competition between public service broadcasters who are members of the EBU.
The war in Gaza was triggered by Hamas’s 7 October attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of about 1,160 people, mostly civilians.
“In the case of Russia, the Russian broadcasters themselves were suspended from the EBU due to their persistent breaches of membership obligations and the violation of public service values,” he said.
Malmö is hosting the 68th edition after Swedish singer Loreen won the 2023 contest in Liverpool with the song Tattoo, watched by some 162 million viewers.
The original article contains 509 words, the summary contains 155 words. Saved 70%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Israel can compete in this year’s Eurovision song contest, organisers have said, despite calls for it to be excluded over the Gaza war as Russia was after invading Ukraine.
The European Broadcasting Union said on Thursday it had conducted a review and decided Israel could participate in the kitsch annual pop extravaganza.
“The Eurovision song contest is a non-political music event and a competition between public service broadcasters who are members of the EBU.
The war in Gaza was triggered by Hamas’s 7 October attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of about 1,160 people, mostly civilians.
“In the case of Russia, the Russian broadcasters themselves were suspended from the EBU due to their persistent breaches of membership obligations and the violation of public service values,” he said.
Malmö is hosting the 68th edition after Swedish singer Loreen won the 2023 contest in Liverpool with the song Tattoo, watched by some 162 million viewers.
The original article contains 509 words, the summary contains 155 words. Saved 70%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!