An investigation has found that Israel’s government have orchestrated a “well-organised campaign” to use the Eurovision Song Contest as a “soft power” tool.
The investigation was carried out by New York Times and claims that Israel carried out a state-backed influence campaign during past editions of Eurovision – fuelling speculation that the results were distorted as a result.
In the report, New York Times claims that the Israeli government used the song contest as a way to “burnish the country’s flagging reputation and rally international support”, and had implemented promotional efforts around the contest dating back to 2018.
It claims that the government spent at least $1million (£730,000) on marketing for Eurovision. Some of this funding came from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hasbara office, which works on issues related to the nation’s public image. In 2024 alone, there was reportedly $800,000 (£587,110) allocated towards “vote promotion” for the contest.
Governments are not supposed to interfere with voting, and Eurovision’s director Martin Green said previously that while Israel’s actions were excessive, they did not contribute to the country coming in second-place in 2024 (represented by Eden Golan) or in 2025 (represented by Yuval Raphael).
The New York Times also reports that while Israel’s contestants won popular votes from countries where Israel is “deeply unpopular”, there is no evidence that its government used bots or other covert methods to affect the overall result.
Last year, Netanyahu shared an image on social media encouraging people to vote 20 times (the maximum amount) for Raphael, and multiple pro-Israel groups across Europe reportedly shared the same image.
Doron Medalie, a former Eurovision songwriter for Israel, defended the strategy and told the outlet: “Everybody is jealous and triggered because Israel is achieving great results”.
After the 2025 edition, some countries’ broadcasters demanded to see the voting data and others called for an external investigation into the results, and while the contest’s director promised that the governing body would review the vote, the group was never provided with a “full vote analysis”.
More pressure over the voting system and efforts made by Israel’s government arose last July, when Spain called for a debate over Israel’s participation while at a broadcaster meeting in London, and also pushed for a change in the voting system.
Czech broadcasting veteran Petr Dvorak was then hired to interview members of the EBU (European Broadcasting Union) about Israel’s participation, and concluded that while opinions varied, some “felt that Israel as a state is sometimes using this event as some sort of promotional tool”.
Later that month, Green said that Israel’s actions had not affected the result at the 2025 contest, but did not provide a close look at the data. He also advised broadcasters about using social media to get votes – something that the outlet summarised as meaning that while online campaigns could influence the vote, Israel’s efforts had not done so.
Following a secret ballot, broadcasters agreed to have the rules changed in time for the 2026 competition, so that the maximum number of votes per viewer dropped to 10, instead of 20. According to the New York Times, already a team behind Israel’s 2026 entrant, Noam Bettan, has shared social media promotions encouraging people to vote for him 10 times.
“Employing a direct call to action to vote 10 times for one artist or song is also not in line with our rules, nor the spirit of the competition,” Mr. Green said in a statement, also reassuring that campaigns like that cannot affect the ultimate outcome.
Israel is set to take part in the 2026 competition, which begins tomorrow (Tuesday May 12) and continues this week. Green shared an open letter to Eurovision fans in December, addressing the decision to include the nation in this year’s competition.
He acknowledged that “many of you will be feeling strong emotions at this time” particularly around “events in the Middle East and how those realities connect to the Eurovision Song Contest”.
However, he also cautioned fans who “want us to take a defined position on geo-political events”, explaining: “The only way the Eurovision Song Contest can continue to bring people together is by ensuring we are guided by our rules first and foremost”.
Pressure to exclude Israel from the competition has come from No Music For Genocide, who issued an open letter, signed by over 1,100 cultural workers and artists, calling for fans to boycott this year’s Eurovision unless Israel is banned from participating.
The open letter was first shared on April 21, and featured signatures from Brian Eno, Massive Attack, Paloma Faith, Paul Weller, Kneecap, Hot Chip, Of Monsters and Men, IDLES, Primal Scream, Sigur Rós, Young Fathers, Mogwai, Black Country New Road, Erika de Casier, Nadine Shah, Dry Cleaning, Ólafur Arnalds, David Holmes, Nemahsis, Macklemore, Roger Waters, Peter Gabriel, Vacations, Smerz, a number of former Eurovision finalists, and more.
