Dutch broadcaster to continue Eurovision boycott over Israel, but Netherlands could still return
Times of Israel · LC · trust 51/100
A Dutch public broadcaster announced Monday that it would not be returning to the Eurovision next year, citing Israel’s ongoing participation in the competition. However, the decision does not fully rule out the Netherlands participating in the contest, since officials have indicated in recent weeks that a different Dutch broadcaster could instead represent the country.
AVROTROS, which has managed the Netherlands’ participation in Eurovision for the past decade, issued a statement Monday saying it would be boycotting the contest for the second year running.
“AVROTROS will not participate in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2027 because the event can no longer be considered neutral, with a participating country still involved in a large-scale military conflict,” the broadcaster wrote. It added that it has pressed the European Broadcasting Union to address such concerns, “however, the recently announced changes by the EBU do not provide sufficient confidence that the independent and neutral character of the Eurovision Song Contest has been restored.”
Taco Zimmerman, the director-general of AVROTROS, said in the statement that “the Eurovision Song Contest was originally created to bring people and countries together. It is undeniable that international conflicts are increasingly affecting the Contest, undermining its neutral character. The Eurovision Song Contest has therefore become a platform for division.”
The broadcaster said it has informed NPO, the Dutch public broadcaster umbrella, of its decision, “and is returning the responsibility for the Dutch participation in the Eurovision Song Contest to the NPO. The NPO will determine how this will proceed for 2027.”
There are eight different broadcasters under NPO, which are all members of the EBU and therefore eligible to participate. The NOS and NTR broadcasters aired the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest in the Netherlands after AVROTROS backed out of the competition.
In response to a query from The Times of Israel, NPO said Monday that “we respect AVROTROS’s decision not to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest next year either. We also recognize that the geopolitical tensions are having a divisive effect. That’s why this hasn’t been an easy decision for our colleagues.”
The statement added that NPO “will reflect on the upcoming edition and will come back to this at the right moment.”
Dutch Culture Minister Rianne Letschert said last week that there were no legal obstacles to a different broadcaster representing the Netherlands at the competition.
The Netherlands was among five countries that boycotted the 2026 contest over Israel’s participation, along with Spain, Slovenia, Iceland and Ireland. None of the nations have so far announced a final decision on whether they will return to next year’s competition. The broadcasters of Slovenia and Iceland did not respond to a request for comment on Monday. Those from Spain and Ireland have indicated it is highly unlikely they will be returning in 2027.
While Belgium’s French-language RTBF participated in 2026, the Flemish VRT has said it has not made a decision on next year’s contest (the two broadcasters trade off years representing Brussels at Eurovision). VRT did not respond to a request for comment on Monday.
In response to the decision from AVROTROS on Monday, Martin Green, the Eurovision director, told The Times of Israel in a statement that it is in dialogue with NPO over the Netherlands’ ongoing participation.
“We regret AVROTROS’ decision to no longer participate in the Eurovision Song Contest but understand their choice and respect the views of our member broadcasters,” Green said in the statement. “The Eurovision Song Contest has always been a place to bring people together, celebrate diverse communities, and show that a better world is possible even in the most difficult times.”
Moving forward, “we will now continue our dialogue with NPO, the umbrella organization for Dutch public service media, regarding the opportunities for another broadcaster to participate,” Green added. “We very much hope that audiences and artists in the Netherlands can continue to be represented in the Eurovision Song Contest.”
The EBU has over the past several years unveiled a series of changes aimed at quelling some of the dissent from member broadcasters over Israel’s ongoing participation. In late 2025, the EBU presented members with a package of reforms including voting changes and limits on third-party voting campaigns. The members voted overwhelmingly to accept the changes and allow Israel to remain in the competition.
That decision led to Ireland, Iceland, Spain, Slovenia and the Netherlands pulling out of the contest in protest.
Last month, Green ruled out any further vote on Israel’s participation, saying that “the membership spoke conclusively.”
And just two weeks ago, the EBU announced a new set of rules that would bar a country affected by “an armed conflict, a sensitive geopolitical situation, or any other situation” that could compromise the competition’s security from automatically hosting if they win the competition.
While the new rules did not mention Israel, they were widely seen as aimed at the Jewish state, although also at Ukraine, which won in 2022 but was not allowed to host the 2023 competition due to its ongoing war against Russia.
The 2027 Eurovision is set to be held in Burgas, Bulgaria, on May 11, 13 and 15, after Bulgaria’s Dara won this year’s competition with the catchy dance hit “Bangaranga.” Israel’s Noam Bettan finished in second place, alarming many viewers and analysts who believed an Israeli win would lead to a larger boycott and further threaten the competition’s future.
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