The Huffington Post
Yuval Raphael represented Israel at last year's Eurovision Song Contest Eurovision ’s director has said the event’s organisers are keeping a close eye on this year’s voting, after questions were raised about the 2025 Israeli delegation . At last year’s Eurovision final, Israeli performer Yuval Raphael finished in second place overall, having come first among televoters. Once the competition was over, several competing broadcasters voiced concerns about whether the voting system that was then in place , allowing viewers to vote for the same country as many as 20 times, “encouraged manipulation”. Many competing countries also took issue with the fact that Israel’s government had paid for cross-platform advertising, encouraging international viewers to vote for its representative during last year’s final. Ahead of this year’s event, major changes were made to the voting system , reducing the number of permitted votes from 20 to just 10, as well as introducing “enhanced technical safeguards” that would “detect and block coordinated or fraudulent voting activity”. “Stronger limits on promotion” were also implemented to “curb disproportionate third-party influence, including government-backed campaigns”. Over the weekend, it was revealed that Israel’s broadcaster had already been issued with a formal warning over a promotional video urging viewers to vote 10 times for the 2026 Israeli representative, Noam Bettan. During a new interview with BBC News , Eurovision’s director Martin Green conceded that “some of the promotion by some of the broadcasters was a little disproportionate” last year, claiming that those who flout the newly-implemented rules would be subject to “further scrutiny”. Martin Green pictured in Basel, Austria on Tuesday ahead of the Eurovision semi-finals He also insisted we’re a “long way from” Israel’s representative being disqualified over any further breaches and that his team was overseeing this year’s voting “ very, very carefully” . “If there is a problem, we start a conversation and we try and resolve it amicably, without reaching for sanctions,” Green added. “We hope, in a way, that you teach the world that you can solve [conflict] by being collegiate right now.” Last week, a Eurovision spokesperson said : “ On Friday 8 May it was brought to our attention that videos with an on-screen instruction to ‘vote 10 times for Israel’ had been published and released by the artist representing [Israel’s national broadcaster Kan]. “Within 20 minutes we had contacted the Kan delegation to ask them to immediately stop any distribution of the videos and remove them from any platforms where they had been published. They immediately acted to do this.” A spokesperson for Kan subsequently told The Times Of Israel that they were “following all of the rules of the competition”. Eurovision's 2026 representative Noam Bettan pictured over the weekend “The voting instructions of the Eurovision Song Contest that cover promotion are predominantly directed at discouraging large scale funded third-party campaigns, and we are satisfied that this video did not form part of such a campaign,” Eurovision’s spokesperson continued. “ However, employing a direct call to action to vote 10 times for one artist or song is also not in line with our rules nor the spirit of the competition. The scale of our vote means that such activity cannot affect the overall result and 50% of all votes this year are supplied through professional juries.” On Tuesday evening, Israel’s representative made it through the semi-final stage of the contest, and is due to perform again at the Eurovision final on Saturday night. MORE EUROVISION: Eurovision Removes Audience Member For Protesting During Israel's Performance Three-Time Irish Eurovision Winner Supports His Country's Boycott Of The Contest Eurovision Responds To Claims Israel Could Leave Contest To Compete In Asian Version
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