Israel’s 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’s south, holds an Israeli flag in this handout photo obtained by Reuters on Jan. 23, 2025. Photo: “The Rising Star,” Channel Keshet 12/Handout via REUTERS

Austrian Broadcasting Corporation (ORF) chairman Roland Weissmann recently visited Israel to express his unwavering support for Israel’s inclusion in the 70th Eurovision Song Contest set to take place in Vienna next year, despite calls to ban the Jewish state from the competition.

Weissman meet with Israeli President Isaac Herzog and the Golan Yochfaz, CEO of the Israeli public broadcaster Kan, nearly one month before the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) will hold a meeting to discuss Israel’s participation in the 2026 Eurovision. Several countries – including The Netherlands, Spain, Ireland, and Slovenia – have already called for Israel to be banned from the competition because of its military actions in the Gaza Strip during its war with the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.

Weissmann insisted that Israel “is an inseparable part of Eurovision” while meeting with Herzog and Yochfaz at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem, Kan reported on Sunday.

“There is no justification for excluding Israel from the competition,” added Yochfaz, who also noted that Kan complies with EBU regulations and will continue to do so. Kan said in a statement that ORF and Kan were working together to make sure Israel is included in the 2026 Eurovision, Ynet reported.

The EBU has been facing growing pressure to exclude Israel from the Eurovision taking place in May of next year, with some countries even threatening to withdraw from the competition if Israel participates. In October, Weissmann expressed clear support for Israel’s participation in the contest while Sepp Schellhorn, a senior foreign ministry official in Austria, called cultural boycotts “dumb and pointless.” Austrian Foreign Minister Beate Meinl-Reisinger also criticized boycott efforts against Israel.

EBU members were originally scheduled to have in November a virtual meeting to vote on Israel’s inclusion in the Eurovision Song Contest next year. After the ceasefire and hostage agreement between Israel and Hamas, the EBU canceled the vote and said Israel’s participation in the competition would instead be discussed at an in-person meeting in December.