{"id":14624,"date":"2025-12-05T11:36:28","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T11:36:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/?p=14624"},"modified":"2025-12-05T11:36:28","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T11:36:28","slug":"correct-decision-by-rte-to-boycott-eurovision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/ga\/correct-decision-by-rte-to-boycott-eurovision\/","title":{"rendered":"Correct decision by RT\u00c9 to boycott Eurovision"},"content":{"rendered":"

Allowing Israel to participate in Eurovision 2026 is an abhorrent decision by the European Broadcasting Union, according to Social Democrats media spokesperson Sin\u00e9ad Gibney.<\/p>\n

Deputy Gibney said:<\/p>\n

\u201cRT\u00c9 is to be commended for following up on its commitment to withdraw from the Eurovision Song Contest if Israel was allowed to take part.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is outrageous that the European Broadcasting Union did not put Israel\u2019s participation to a vote – this is against the very nature of the Union.<\/p>\n

\u201cSpain, the Netherlands and Slovenia have shown courage, solidarity and compassion by also agreeing to boycott Eurovision 2026, and I hope many more countries will follow suit.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe EBU has shown complete double standards by almost immediately banning Russia from participating upon their illegal invasion of Ukraine but giving Israel a pass while it commits genocide against the Palestinian people.<\/p>\n

\u201cDespite all of the talk of ceasefire in the past months, Israel continues to murder innocent Palestinians in Gaza – we cannot avert our gaze from what continues to be one of the most abhorrent abuses of human rights of our time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI implore all other EBU nations to recognise this ongoing ethnic cleansing and make the compassionate decision to abstain from Eurovision 2026 in solidarity with the Palestinian people.\u201d<\/p>\n

December 5th, 2025<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Allowing Israel to participate in Eurovision 2026 is an abhorrent decision by the European Broadcasting Union, according to Social Democrats media spokesperson Sin\u00e9ad Gibney. Deputy Gibney said: \u201cRT\u00c9 is to be commended for following up on its commitment to withdraw from the Eurovision Song Contest if Israel was allowed to take part. \u201cIt is outrageous […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":11530,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[736,529,718,738,7,497],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14624","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-eu","category-gaza","category-israel","category-palestine","category-press-release","category-sinead-gibney"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nCorrect decision by RT\u00c9 to boycott Eurovision - Social Democrats<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/correct-decision-by-rte-to-boycott-eurovision\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"ga_IE\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Correct decision by RT\u00c9 to boycott Eurovision - Social Democrats\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Allowing Israel to participate in Eurovision 2026 is an abhorrent decision by the European Broadcasting Union, according to Social Democrats media spokesperson Sin\u00e9ad Gibney. 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