Yuval Raphael, who represented Israel at Eurovision in 2025

After months of mounting speculation, Eurovision 2026 has confirmed that Israel will be allowed to compete in the upcoming song contest.

It’s an extremely controversial decision given the escalating violence in Gaza, and now many countries have confirmed that they’ll be boycotting the competition as a result of Israel’s presence.

In the run-up to last year’s Eurovision, many fans called for organisers to remove Israel from the contest, in the same way Russia was banned in 2022 following its invasion of Ukraine.

However organisers chose to run Eurovision as usual, with Israel remaining in the contest.

This led to wider campaigns for a boycott of the competition, backed by the Palestinian-led BDS movement, with the UK seeing a dip in its viewership (although it’s worth pointing out the previous year took place in the UK).

With the news that Israel will officially once again be allowed to compete in Eurovision, here’s which countries won’t be competing next year as a result.

Ireland

Ireland holds the joint record for most........

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