Dutch broadcaster boycotts Eurovision for second consecutive year over Israel’s inclusion

The Netherlands was one of five countries that refused to participate in the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna, Austria, because of Israel’s participation.

By The Shiryn Ghermezian, The Algemeiner

The Dutch public broadcaster AVROTROS announced on Monday that it is again boycotting the Eurovision Song Contest, for the second year in a row, in protest of Israel’s inclusion in the competition and the country’s military actions in the Gaza Strip during its war with the Hamas terrorist group.

The competition “can no longer be considered neutral, with a participating country still involved in a large-scale military conflict,” AVROTROS said, referring to Israel.

The broadcaster noted that “geopolitical tensions in the Middle East” and “the severe humanitarian suffering in Gaza … have contributed to increasing divisions surrounding the Eurovision Song Contest in recent years.”

It claimed its participation in the Eurovision is “no longer consistent with the values of AVROTROS: trustworthiness, independence, and humanity.”

AVROTROS also addressed recently updated rules by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) for the 2027 Eurovision, which state if a country involved in an armed conflict wins the competition, it will not be allowed to host the contest the next year.

AVROTROS said the “recently announced changes by the EBU do not provide sufficient confidence that the independent and neutral character of the Eurovision Song Contest has been restored.”

AVROTROS is the first broadcaster to publicly announce it will not participate in the 2027 Eurovision, which is set to take place in Burgas, Bulgaria.

The Netherlands was one of five countries that refused to participate in the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna, Austria, because of Israel’s participation.

Two former Eurovision winners also returned their trophies in a boycott of Israel’s inclusion in the competition.

“The Eurovision Song Contest was originally created to bring people and countries together. It is undeniable that international conflicts are increasingly affecting the contest, undermining its neutral character,” said AVROTROS Director Taco Zimmerman.

“As a public broadcaster, we remain committed to our values. They guide us in everything we do, even when that means stepping away from an event that is very close to our hearts. That is painful as we would have very much liked to be part of the contest again next year.”

AVROTROS is returning responsibility for Dutch participation in the Eurovision to the NPO, which is the umbrella organization for Dutch public broadcasting.

The NPO will now determine if The Netherlands will participate in the 2027 Eurovision under a different public broadcaster.

The NPO has yet to publicly comment on the announcement, but Eurovision Director Martin Green told ESCToday, on behalf of the EBU, that the union is currently in talks with the NPO about finding another Dutch broadcaster to participate in the 2027 Eurovision Song Contest.

“We regret AVROTROS’ decision to no longer participate in the Eurovision Song Contest but understand their choice and respect the views of our member broadcasters,” Green added.

“The Eurovision Song Contest has always been a place to bring people together, celebrate diverse communities, and show that a better world is possible even in the most difficult times … We very much hope that audiences and artists in the Netherlands can continue to be represented in the Eurovision Song Contest.”

The 2026 Eurovision was broadcast live in The Netherlands on NPO. The country is one of the founder members of the Eurovision Song Contest and participated in the contest for the first time in 1956.

The Dutch won the competition five times, most recently in 2019.