{"id":2379360,"date":"2026-04-18T22:59:55","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T22:59:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2379360"},"modified":"2026-04-18T22:59:55","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T22:59:55","slug":"over-1000-entertainment-industry-figures-back-israels-inclusion-in-2026-eurovision-song-contest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/over-1000-entertainment-industry-figures-back-israels-inclusion-in-2026-eurovision-song-contest\/","title":{"rendered":"Over 1,000 Entertainment Industry Figures Back Israel\u2019s Inclusion in 2026 Eurovision Song Contest"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div id=\"post_content\">\n<div id=\"attachment_759922\" style=\"width: 730px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-759922\" class=\"lazyload size-full wp-image-759922\" src=\"https:\/\/www.algemeiner.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/2025-12-10T171125Z_4_LYNXMPELB90ZK_RTROPTP_4_MUSIC-EUROVISION-ISRAEL-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.algemeiner.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/2025-12-10T171125Z_4_LYNXMPELB90ZK_RTROPTP_4_MUSIC-EUROVISION-ISRAEL-1.jpg 720w, https:\/\/www.algemeiner.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/2025-12-10T171125Z_4_LYNXMPELB90ZK_RTROPTP_4_MUSIC-EUROVISION-ISRAEL-1-300x167.jpg 300w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 720px) 100vw, 720px\"\/><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-759922\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A photographer takes a picture of a TV screen in Wiener Stadthalle, the venue of next year\u2019s Eurovision in Vienna, Austria, Nov. 18, 2025. Photo: REUTERS\/Leonhard Foeger<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>More than 1,000 members of the entertainment industry have signed an open letter expressing support for Israel\u2019s participation in the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) held in May, in response to demands to have the country excluded from the competition because of <span class=\"citation-16 citation-end-16\">its military actions in the Gaza Strip during the Israel-Hamas war.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Creative Community for Peace, a non-profit organization comprised of prominent members of the entertainment industry, penned the initial open letter in 2024 in response to efforts by anti-Israel activists to have the European Broadcasting Union, which organizes the ESC, ban Israel from the event and to pressure countries and artists to withdraw their participation from the competition. The open letter voiced support for Israel\u2019s inclusion in Eurovision as well as solidarity with the contest\u2019s participants, while denouncing calls for a boycott of the event.<\/p>\n<p>Hundreds more entertainment industry leaders have since added their names to the <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.creativecommunityforpeace.com\/blog\/2026\/04\/15\/eurovision2026\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">open letter,<\/a> including actresses Amy Schumer and Mila Kunis; singer Matisyahu; actors Jeremy Piven and Jerry O\u2019Connell; television writer, producer, and directors Amy Sherman-Palladino and Matthew Weiner; \u201cWonder Woman\u201d director Patty Jenkins; and \u201cNobody Wants This\u201d co-creator Erin Foster.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have been shocked and disappointed to see some members of the entertainment community calling for Israel to be banished from the contest for responding to the greatest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust,\u201d the letter stated. \u201cWe believe that unifying events such as singing competitions are crucial to help bridge our cultural divides and unite people of all backgrounds through their shared love of music.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMusic should bring us together,\u201d said O\u2019Connell. \u201cNo artist should be silenced for where they are from. These boycott efforts destroy the very connections the arts are meant to build.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Those who signed the initial open letter back in 2024 include Helen Mirren, Boy George, Liev Schrieber, Sharon Osbourne, Gene Simmons, Debra Messing, David Draiman, Mayim Bialik, Julianna Margulies, and Ginnifer Goodwin.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cArtists and culture are being dragged into the angry, misinformed politics of the moment,\u201d said Osbourne in a released statement. \u201cAttempts to exclude Israelis from the international stage twist art into a tool of division and erode the shared humanity that the arts are meant to preserve. I\u2019ve watched this play out for over three years, and it just breaks my heart.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"citation-16 citation-end-16\">The 2026 Eurovision semi-finals will take place on May 12 and 14, and the final live show will be on May 16. The competition is being held in Vienna, Austria.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"citation-16 citation-end-16\">After the European Broadcasting Union confirmed late last year that it will allow Israel to participate in the 2026 ESC, <\/span>Spain, the Netherlands, Ireland, Slovenia, and Iceland announced they will not participate in this year\u2019s event.<\/p>\n<p>Spain\u2019s national broadcaster RTVE said it will not broadcast or participate in the event, which marks the first time the country has completely boycotted the ESC since it began participating in the competition in 1961. Spain\u2019s Culture Minister Ernest Urtasun called the move \u201cbrave.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, the EBU confirmed this week that for the first time ever the live shows of the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest will be available to watch for free in the United States. It will air on YouTube but also be available for viewing in the US on the Peacock streaming service.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script>\n        ! function(f, b, e, v, n, t, s) {\n            if (f.fbq) return;\n            n = f.fbq = function() {\n                n.callMethod ?\n                    n.callMethod.apply(n, arguments) : n.queue.push(arguments)\n            };\n            if (!f._fbq) f._fbq = n;\n            n.push = n;\n            n.loaded = !0;\n            n.version = '2.0';\n            n.queue = [];\n            t = b.createElement(e);\n            t.async = !0;\n            t.src = v;\n            s = b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];\n            s.parentNode.insertBefore(t, s)\n        }(window,\n            document, 'script', 'https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\n        fbq('init', '1726450927609554');\n        fbq('track', \"PageView\");\n    <\/script><script>(function(d, s, id) {\n  var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];\n  if (d.getElementById(id)) return;\n  js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;\n  js.src = \"\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_GB\/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.5&appId=219206034782722\";\n  fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);\n}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));<\/script><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.algemeiner.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A photographer takes a picture of a TV screen in Wiener Stadthalle, the venue of next year\u2019s Eurovision in Vienna, Austria, Nov. 18, 2025. Photo: REUTERS\/Leonhard Foeger More than 1,000 members of the entertainment industry have signed an open letter expressing support for Israel\u2019s participation in the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) held in May, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2379361,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2379360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Over-1000-Entertainment-Industry-Figures-Back-Israels-Inclusion-in-2026.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2379360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2379360"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2379360\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2379362,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2379360\/revisions\/2379362"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2379361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2379360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2379360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2379360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}