Spanish public television challenged this Saturday, May 17, the responsible organization of Eurovision, which had summoned it to stop its references to the offensive in Gaza under the threat of sanctions, by transmitting a message of support to the Palestinians before its broadcast of the event.
“With respect to human rights, silence is not an option. Peace and justice for Palestine,” he wrote in White on a black background, the RTVE radio and television group, in a Spanish and English message, a few seconds before the official start of song competition.
This short text acts as a response to the European Radio-Television Union (URU), a Eurovision organizer, who had asked the public group not to repeat his references to the war in Gaza during his broadcast of the final on Saturday night, under penalty of “punitive fines”.
Remembered at the request by mail
In a letter revealed on Saturday by RTVE itself, and addressed to the director of content production of the television group and head of the Spanish delegation to Eurovision, the European organization justified its position by the apolitical nature of the event.
“The political statements that can compromise the neutrality of the competition are prohibited,” said the UER, of which RTVE is a member, judging “fundamental” that commentators “respect these rules without exception” in countries that retransmit the competition.
According to the Spanish media, this withdrawal to order was presented after a complaint of Israeli public television (Kan), annoyed by the fact that the Spanish presenters referred to the dead in Gaza during the semifinal of the Israeli candidate Yuval Raphael on Thursday night.
Contacted by AFP, the UUr confirmed that it has taken into account the Spanish public group. “We talk about this question to RTVE and clearly indicate that commentators must maintain their neutrality when the Eurovision of the song competition,” he said.
Israel in Eurovision, a participation in dispute
Kan’s complaint was broadcast while RTVE had demanded in mid -April a “debate” about the presence of Israel in Eurovision, highlighting the “concerns that the situation in Gaza and the participation of Kan’s public television wake up in Spanish civil society.”
Spain, which recognized the state of Palestine on May 28, 2024 with Ireland and Norway, has been established in recent months as one of the most critical votes in the EU with respect to the Government of Benjamin Netanyahu, and is a historical support of the Palestinian cause.
The positions of the socialist prime minister Pedro Sánchez, who called on a summit of the Arab League in Baghdad to press Israel to stop the massacre in Gaza, “Spain have earned in recent months virulent criticisms of the Netanyahu government.
26 countries participate, through their national stations, which select them, in the final of the 2025 Edition of Eurovision, organized in Basel, Switzerland. The candidate selected by the Israeli television Kan, Yuval Raphael, is a survivor of the attack against Hamas on October 7.
Source: BFM TV
