"KAN is complicit in Israel's genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza, the decade-long apartheid regime and the occupation of the entire Palestinian people", it says, among other things, in the letter according to the news site Euronews.
Israel's participation in the competition was a controversial issue already last year when the final was decided in Malmö, considering the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. The EBU was accused of hypocrisy when it allowed Israel to remain in the competition, after having previously excluded Russia in 2022 because of Putin's invasion of Ukraine.
Among those who have signed the letter are former winners such as Charlie McGettigan, Salvador Sobral and Fernando Tordo, the British singer Mae Muller, the French singer La Zarra and last year's contestants, the Norwegian Gåte and the Icelandic Ásdís María, who participated in what is described as "the most politicized, chaotic and unpleasant in the competition's history".
