While the rehearsals of the Basel of Switzerland for the Eurovision 2025 competition are intensive and feverish, in the background the situation is tense (and this year) because of the Gaza war.

The debate on Israel’s involvement has sparked controversy between state broadcasting and the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), amidst the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

According to Ogae Greece (the official website of Eurovision Funclub), four countries are already calling for Israel’s participation in this year’s competition.

In the latest development, Irish Radio and Television, RTé, became the fourth broadcasting body that publicly expresses concerns about Israel’s involvement in Eurovision, following the examples of Spain, Slovenia and Iceland.

In addition to the official placements, more than 70 former competition participants and many artists, musicians and Eurovision fans across Europe have called for Israel’s exclusion from the competition due to its military involvement.

“With Israel’s ongoing presence in the competition, EBU normalizes and rinses the crimes committed by this state. EBU has already shown that it can make decisions when the circumstances require – as it did in 2022 with Russia’s exclusion. We do not accept two measures and two weights, ”they say in an open letter to the EBU.

Israel will be represented this year with the song “New Day Will Rise”, which will be performed by Yuval Raphael, survived Hamas’ attack at the Nova Music Festival on October 7, 2023.

Forbidden this year irrelevant flags and press interviews

This year, in order to avoid the repetition of bad reactions to Israel’s involvement last year, EBU has decided to “historical” changes in the policy of the competition.

In more detail, Press interviews are abolished and The flags are limited In the competition as organizers say “political messages should be avoided”, while the country hosting the competition, Switzerland, “gives great value to freedom of expression”.

Its flags LOATKI Community as well as flags of countries not participating in the competition – including Palestinian flag – are allowed between public. This change is made to avoid the problems that arose at last year’s competition in Malmme, where the ban on some flags were discussed by the public.

For the 37 countries participating in this year’s competition, the rules are stricter.

Flag policy states that the participants can participate in the competition, only with the official flag of their country. Solidarity statements, such as the Ukrainian flag, which several participants presented in 2022, are prohibited this year for participants.

The reason for this decision is to avoid any political statement in the contest, the countries are on the grounds that “they are all together, without dividing” but the public is not limited to freedom of speech and can be freely expressed.

In addition, artists will be protected by new regulations on the interviews they will give and the accessibility of the media to them.