Eurovision fans worldwide started a grassroots campaign saying that the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) has been treating the Israeli delegation unfairly following a warning issued by the competition’s managing director to KAN, Israel’s public broadcaster, over the weekend.
The campaign began just ahead of the opening of the 70th edition of the song contest, which is set to start on Tuesday.
In light of new rules adopted by the EBU against campaigns urging Eurovision Song Contest voters to cast ballots for particular artists, Martin Green, the competition’s managing director, confirmed on Saturday that he had issued a formal warning to KAN over an advertising campaign.
Eurovoix News reported that advertisements in 13 languages featuring Noam Bettan, the Israeli representative, had been released, calling on voters to use all 10 of their votes for Israel. These ads included specific instructions on how to cast votes.
“On Friday, May 8, it was brought to our attention that videos with an on-screen instruction to ‘vote 10 times for Israel’ had been published and released by the artist representing KAN,” Green said in a statement.
Noam Bettan is Israel’s Eurovision contestant. (credit: Shai Franco/Courtesy of EBU)
“Within 20 minutes, we had contacted the KAN delegation to ask them to immediately stop any distribution of the videos and remove them from any platforms where they had been published,” he said. “They immediately acted to do this.
“The voting instructions of the Eurovision Song Contest, which cover promotion, are predominantly directed at discouraging large-scale, funded third-party campaigns, and we are satisfied that this video did not form part of such a campaign,” Green added.
“However, employing a direct call to action to vote 10 times for a single artist or song is also not in line with our rules or the spirit of the competition,” he continued. “Nevertheless, we have issued a formal warning letter to KAN and will continue to monitor any promotional activities carefully and take appropriate action where needed.”
Eurovision fans respond to Green
In response, some Eurovision fans in WhatsApp chat groups began circulating a message in several languages to be emailed to Green.
“I am writing to express my profound disappointment and to lodge a formal complaint regarding the EBU’s recent demand that the Israeli delegation remove its promotional campaign for Noam Bettan’s song, ‘Michelle,’ as well as the subsequent formal warning issued to KAN,” the message read, in part.
It went on to say that “this drastic action is highly disproportionate, entirely unjustified, and strongly appears to be a case of targeted harassment against the Israeli team to appease external political pressure.”
“As you have publicly acknowledged yourself, the promotional materials produced by the Israeli delegation did **not** violate the strict new regulations regarding third-party or government funding. It was a standard, self-contained campaign by the artist and the broadcaster,” it continued.
The message further stated: “Your justification for forcing the removal of these videos – that stating ‘vote 10 times’ violates the ‘spirit of the competition’ – is arbitrary and absurd.”
“The EBU’s own voting regulations officially allow viewers to cast up to 10 votes per user.
“Penalizing an artist for simply educating fans about the official mechanics of your own voting system is entirely unreasonable. There is no rule stating that an artist cannot encourage maximum support from their fan base,” the message read.
It cited examples of other countries running similar campaigns that have not been rebuked, calling this a “glaring double standard.”
Among the examples cited were the promotional campaigns that Malta and Poland are currently running.
“The EBU claims to champion a non-political event built on fairness and unity. Yet, forcing Noam Bettan and the Israeli delegation to walk on eggshells while turning a blind eye to identical or more extensive practices by other nations proves the exact opposite,” the letter concluded.
Yifat Gat, an Israeli-born artist living in France for years, said that she knew many people who were sending the message to the EBU in English and French.
“There’s a growing frustration among Eurovision fans who simply want to enjoy the show,” she said.
“It feels like BDS [the Boycott, Sanctions, and Divestment movement] has hijacked the event, bullying people into applying double standards against Israel… No one likes it,” Gat added.
This message of protest was “just a way of saying, ‘Enough is enough’ – let the fans enjoy the music.”
There is no way to know exactly how many people have sent this message to the EBU. Still, it is a sign of the times in a year during which five countries – Iceland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Slovenia, and Spain – are boycotting the contest because of Israel’s continued participation.
