Dozens of protesters gathered outside Serbia's state broadcaster RTS in Belgrade on Tuesday, demanding the nation withdraw from the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest due to Israel's participation amid the Gaza conflict.
Waving Palestinian flags and displaying banners accusing Israel of atrocities, demonstrators urged RTS not to air the contest and called for a public boycott. "A Eurovision without Israel would mean defending the ideals that this event proclaims," a statement from the protest organisers declared.
The annual competition, scheduled for May 12-16 in Vienna, often struggles to separate pop music from politics. Organisers' December decision to allow Israel to compete prompted walkouts from Slovenia, Iceland, Ireland, the Netherlands, and Spain. Slovenia's public broadcaster, RTV Slovenia, will instead air a Palestinian programme.
This follows Russia's expulsion in 2022 after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Serbia, represented by the metal band Lavina, maintains close ties with Israel. There was no immediate reaction from RTS regarding the protesters' demands.
This comes after major acts like Brian Eno, Paul Weller, Kneecap, Massive Attack and Paloma Faith were among 1,000-plus artists who signed an open letter calling for fans to boycott the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest.
On 21 April, a letter organised by No Music for Genocide and the BDS movement called on fans and performers to boycott Eurovision unless the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) bans Israel’s public broadcast KAN from the contest.
“As musicians and cultural workers, many living within the reaches of the [EBU], we reject Eurovision being used to whitewash and normalise Israel’s genocide, siege and brutal military occupation against Palestinians,” the letter states, in part.
“We stand in solidarity with Palestinian calls for public broadcasters, performers, screening party organisers, crew, and fans to boycott Eurovision until the EBU bans complicit Israeli broadcaster KAN.”
Organisers applauded the five countries – Spain, Ireland, Iceland, Slovenia and the Netherlands – for withdrawing from this year’s contest in protest over Israel’s participation, as well as “the many national selection finalists committing to refuse to go to Eurovision”.
They later added: “As artists, we recognise our collective agency – and the power of refusal. We refuse to be silent. We refuse to be complicit. We call on others in our industry to join us. And we stand in solidarity with all principled efforts to end complicity in every industry.”
