GENEVA: Public broadcasters from at least four countries — including Spain and the Netherlands — on Thursday pulled out of next year’s Eurovision Song Contest after organizers decided to allow Israel to compete.
The developments expose how political discord has taken center stage over a usually joyful celebrating harmony through music.
The pullouts, which were joined by Ireland and Slovenia, came after a general assembly of the European Broadcasting Union — a group of public broadcasters from 56 countries that runs the event — met to discuss concerns about Israel’s participation, which some countries oppose over its conduct of the war in Gaza.
Earlier, EBUs members voted to adopt tougher voting rules in response to allegations that Israel manipulated the vote in favor of their contestants, but took no action to exclude any broadcaster from the competition.
The feel-good pop music gala that draws more than 100 million viewers every year has been roiled by the war in Gaza for the past two years.
