• Ramzy Baroud is a non-resident senior research fellow at the Center for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA)
• Romana Rubeo is the managing editor of The Palestine Chronicle

ISTANBUL

The term "hypocrisy" is the most convenient term, but certainly not the most apt to describe the inclusion [1] of Israel in the Eurovision Song Contest 2026. We must search for other terms that could possibly explain why a country that has just committed one of the most horrific genocides in modern history is celebrated as a hub for culture, art, and music. "Complicity" is a possible alternative, though still not enough to fully explain the West's insistence on whitewashing the Israeli genocide [2] against the Palestinian people.

Many of those protesting Israel's inclusion in the competition, which typically attracts tens of millions of viewers worldwide, rightly note that Russia was expelled [3] within 36 hours of the start of its February 2022 war on Ukraine. In fact, the Russian example does not stop at Eurovision. Thousands of such sanctions have been slapped against Moscow in every possible field, from politics to the economy to sports, culture, and more. Even now, thousands of sanctions [4] later, European officials are still mulling over or carrying out yet more sanctions. Europe is never satisfied when it comes to punishing Russia or any country that orbits outside its political sphere.

Settler colonial logic

But is Israel a European country? Answering this question requires that we deeply appreciate the profound and sinister relationship between Israel and the West in general, and Israel and Europe in particular. Israel is a European offspring, the hideous creation of Western imperialism and colonialism. It is settler-colonialism [5] in its ugliest manifestation, where the natives are not even allowed to serve the role of the inferior, the collective servant of Westerners and their fraudulently superior culture. In the Israeli settler-colonial model, Palestinians are to be eliminated, as exemplified by David Ben-Gurion, the primary architect of the Zionist project in Palestine and the first prime minister of Israel, when he stated [6] that "the Arabs must go" (or "we must expel the Arabs" [7]), but one needs an opportune moment for making it happen, such as a war.

But let's assume, for the sake of argument, that the West has been fooled by Israel's repeated claims of democracy, equality, and civilization. What justification does Europe have now as it continues to embrace Israel in every possible field, including that of culture and music? We still do not fully know the number of Palestinians massacred by Israeli hands and Western weapon technology, simply because thousands of Palestinian bodies remain trapped [8] under the rubble of their own homes, schools and hospitals. The most modest estimation tells us that over 71,000 people have been killed [9] and over 171,000 have been wounded [10]. These numbers do not include the many thousands who remain missing or those killed by famine, curable diseases, polluted waters, and the like.

The West knows all of this, not only because, like the rest of us, it has been watching the world's first livestream genocide, but because it owns the very satellites that provided the information to Israel, the murder weapon that Israel used, and the political shield it collectively created to protect Tel Aviv. Even those Europeans critical of Israel have not gone far enough, considering that some of them, like top Spanish officials, have already acknowledged that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza. Yet, no political ties have been fully severed, no total economic sanctions have been imposed, nothing of the sort.

‘Neutral space’ as doctrine

The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) continues to argue [11] that "the Contest should remain a neutral space and must not be instrumentalized". This is the same pathetic argument that the world football federation, FIFA, has used [12] repeatedly to shield Israel while punishing Russian athletes purely based on the fact that they are Russian. Europe's die-hard support for Israel is not mere hypocrisy motivated by immediate financial interests or simply because, in their twisted view, Palestinian lives are of no value. Europe's ruling elites believe that Israel is one of them; that Israel's victories and setbacks are their own successes and failures. Even when they reprimand Israel, they do so lovingly, gently, as a father reprimanding his own son for behaving against the interests of the family.

Public anger, institutional silence

This maxim, however, does not apply to European societies. Millions of Italians, Irish, French, Spanish, Belgians, and even Germans and Austrians, among other nations, are livid [13] about what Israel has done to the Palestinians, and some are angry that it was their own tax money that facilitated the genocide of Gazans. These people are now raising [14] their voices against the EBU and all other complicit European institutions, saying that enough is enough. It is now up to them to ensure that their voices are heard as a last stand against the intentional degradation of European democracy.

The EBU has declared [15] on Dec. 17 that the booing from the crowd, directed at Israel's performance, will not be censored or drowned out, in what was meant as a concession. What a pitiful attempt at coaxing the people into silence. But European civil society will not accept this, as their boos will and must drown out Europe's complicity in the Israeli genocide in Gaza. It is time for the booing to increase, not only to delegitimize those who use music to whitewash the Gaza genocide but to hold accountable those who made the genocide possible in the first place, from Brussels to London to Paris, and now in Vienna.

[1] https://eurovisionworld.com/esc/israel-remains-in-eurovision

[2] https://eurovisionworld.com/esc/israel-remains-in-eurovision

[3] https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-60530513

[4] https://www.cnas.org/sanctions-by-the-numbers

[5] https://www.palestine-studies.org/en/node/232079

[6] https://www.palestine-studies.org/en/node/42571

[7] https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/charlotte-silver/ilan-pappe-and-camera-how-zionists-are-fighting-history

[8] https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/12/15/retrieving-bodies-in-gaza-difficult-due-to-storm-war-ravaged-buildings

[9] https://www.aps.dz/en/world/arab-world/mje8zeo8-zionist-aggression-death-toll-reaches-70-925-in-gaza-171-185-others-wounded

[10] https://www.aps.dz/en/world/arab-world/mje8zeo8-zionist-aggression-death-toll-reaches-70-925-in-gaza-171-185-others-wounded

[11] https://www.ebu.ch/news/2025/11/ebu-announces-changes-to-eurovision-song-contest-voting-rules-to-strengthen-trust-and-transparency

[12] https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/so-politics-and-sports-do-mix-fifas-hypocrisy-over-russia-and-israel

[13] https://politicstoday.org/global-protests-erupt-after-israeli-interception-of-gaza-aid-flotilla/

[14] https://www.nbcnews.com/world/europe/united-music-divided-israel-eurovision-tensions-bubble-famously-neutra-rcna206455

[15] https://www.euronews.com/culture/2025/12/17/eurovision-crisis-austrian-broadcaster-announces-it-will-not-censor-palestinian-flags-or-m

​​​​​​​*Opinions expressed in this article are the authors' own and do not necessarily reflect Anadolu's editorial policy.