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Eurovision winner wants Israel excluded from 2026 contest over Gaza war

World News

22-05-2025 | 14:25

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Eurovision winner wants Israel excluded from 2026 contest over Gaza war

Austrian singer JJ, who won this year's Eurovision Song Contest, called in an interview published on Thursday for Israel to be excluded from the 2026 edition in Vienna due to the war in Gaza.

Eurovision, which stresses its political neutrality, faced controversy again this year linked to the war. An Israeli military campaign has killed over 53,000 Palestinians in Gaza, the enclave's health authorities say, since Hamas militants' cross-border attack on October 7, 2023 that killed around 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies.

Pro-Palestinian groups had urged the European Broadcasting Union to exclude Israel from the 2025 contest, yet Israel's Yuval Raphael, a survivor of the October 7 attack, came second.

"It is very disappointing to see Israel still participating in the contest. I would like the next Eurovision to be held in Vienna and without Israel," 24-year-old JJ was quoted as saying by Spanish newspaper El Pais.

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