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<\/a>Senior Austrian Officials Demand Withdrawal From Hosting 2026 Eurovision Song Contest if Israel Banned: Report<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/h3>\nShiryn Ghermezian<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Senior members of Austria\u2019s ruling party, the Austrian People\u2019s Party (\u00d6VP), want the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation (ORF) to refuse to host the 70th Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna next year if Israel is excluded from the competition, according to a local news outlet.<\/span><\/p>\n The European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which organizes the Eurovision, will hold a private vote online in mid-November to decide whether Israel\u2019s broadcaster Kan should be banned from next year\u2019s song contest because of Israeli military actions in the Gaza Strip during the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.<\/span><\/p>\n The next Eurovision is scheduled to take place in May 2026 in Vienna. Several countries have already expressed support for a boycott of Israel from the competition and even threatened to pull out of the contest if the Jewish state is not barred, including Ireland, Spain<\/a>, and The Netherlands.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00d6VP Chancellor Christian Stocker and State Secretary Alexander Pr\u00f6ll are supposedly behind-the-scenes trying to pressure both the ORF and the city of Vienna to withdraw hosting duties for the song contest if the EBU votes in support of boycotting Israel, according to the local publication OE24<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt is impossible that exactly we should forbid a Jewish artist to come to Vienna,\u201d an \u00d6VP representative told OE24. The news outlet added that if the ORF drops out of the Eurovision, it would have to pay a fine of up to 40 million euros (more than $46 million) to the new host city.<\/span><\/p>\n Vienna\u2019s Mayor Michael Ludwig and ORF Director-General Roland Wei\u00dfmann both previously said they support Israel\u2019s participation in the 2026 Eurovision. In an interview with the German-language publication Kurier<\/em>, <\/strong>Austria\u2019s Foreign and European Affairs Minister Sepp Schellhorn called efforts to bar Israel\u2019s Kan from the competition \u201cdumb and pointless<\/a>.\u201d He added that is it \u201cdeeply problematic to confuse their roles with a country\u2019s politics.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Austria\u2019s Foreign Minister Beate Meinl-Reisinger sent a letter to her colleagues in Europe expressing \u201cdeep concern about the risk of division\u201d within the EBU if Israel is banned from the Eurovision. Banning Israel or boycotting the event \u201cwould neither alleviate the humanitarian crisis in Gaza nor contribute to a sustainable political solution,\u201d she wrote. The Governor of Lower Austria Johanna Mikl-Leitner said in a Facebook post<\/a> in September that a Eurovision competition without Israel \u201cis unthinkable.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cEspecially now, during difficult times, Austria must take responsibility and stand with the Israeli people,\u201d she said. \u201cI would rather Austria ultimately host the Song Contest alone with Israel \u2013 than without Israel. Austria must take a stand.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Zawarto\u015b\u0107 publikowanych artyku\u0142\u00f3w i materia\u0142\u00f3w nie reprezentuje pogl\u0105d\u00f3w ani opinii Reunion’68,<\/em> Senior Austrian Officials Demand Withdrawal From Hosting 2026 Eurovision Song Contest if Israel Banned: Report Shiryn Ghermezian Israel\u2019s representative to the Eurovision Song Contest, Yuval Raphael, a survivor of the deadly Oct. 7 2023, attack by Hamas on the Nova festival in Israel\u2019s south, holds an Israeli flag in this handout photo obtained by Reuters […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[33,24],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124860"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=124860"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124860\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":124948,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124860\/revisions\/124948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=124860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=124860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=124860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n![](\"https:\/\/www.algemeiner.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/2025-01-23T083653Z_1217441569_RC2JFCAEPAI3_RTRMADP_3_MUSIC-EUROVISION-ISRAEL-2.jpg\")
Israel\u2019s representative to the Eurovision Song Contest, Yuval Raphael, a survivor of the deadly Oct. 7 2023, attack by Hamas on the Nova festival in Israel\u2019s south, holds an Israeli flag in this handout photo obtained by Reuters on Jan. 23, 2025. Photo: \u201cThe Rising Star,\u201d Channel Keshet 12\/Handout via REUTERS<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n
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