Israel: What percentage of Europeans believe that the country should not participate at Eurovision 2024?

Truth be told, there is a great number of Europeans who firmly believe that Israel should not take part in the Eurovision Song Contest 2024, mainly because of their geographical position.

However, the situation in Gaza remains fraught and this has made a plethora of people call for Israel’s excusion from this year’s Contest.

Eurotrack recently conducted a survey asking respondents if Israel should be allowed to participate at Eurovision this year. The exctracted result showcased that many stand by Israel’s exclusion for geographical reasons and not political. What is also interesting is that, among those who intend to watch the show, the percentage of the viewers who claim that Israel should not participate, is significantly smaller compared to the general population.

In each of the seven countries that were taken into account for the survey, 40-59% support that Israel should be banned from entering the Contest, whereas 23-37% claim the opposite.

Despite this, as it was abovementioned, the viewers who are going to watch the show this year present a higher possibility of considering Israel’s participation and being more amenable towards it. Especially the majority of German viewers believe in Israel remaining as a participating country.

Why do Europeans want to see Israel banned from Eurovision?

Of course, Israel is at the center of current affairs with the conflict in Gaza still in progress, and this matter stands as the principal factor for many people across Europe to wish upon the country’s exclusion from the Contest. Is that what motivates the public opinion though?

Yes, to a certain extent. When the respondents of Eurotrack’s survey were asked the reason behind their stance to ban Israel from Eurovision, somewhat between 38% and 65% in each country base their answers on the Middle East conflict. Among those who truly are planning to watch the Contest and think that Israel must be excluded, this argument is supported by 47-69%.

Despite this data, it is still common for people to believe that Israel should not be a part of Eurovision because of where it i geographically located.

In reality, according to the survey, the percentage of people who want Israel to be excluded solely because of the tense in Gaza is around 21-36% and when it comes to Eurovision viewers, 12-20%.

With great polarisation around the matter, we shall see how these percentages will be translated on Israel’s votes in the Contest, especially the televote.

Stay tuned to EurovisionFun for all the updates!

Source: yougov