Dutch public broadcaster AvroTros and umbrella organisation NPO say they want to discuss Israel’s participation in the Eurovision Song Contest with the organisers, raising concerns about the impact on the credibility of the contest’s apolitical character.

In a joint statement on Tuesday, the two organisations said they “strongly value the apolitical and unifying nature of the Eurovision Song Contest”, but believe the event is increasingly affected by social and geopolitical tensions.

“Israel’s participation confronts us with the question of whether the contest can still truly function as an apolitical, unifying and cultural event,” the broadcasters said.

AvroTros and NPO said they want to raise the issue in talks with other countries through the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the alliance of public broadcasters that organises the contest.

On Monday, Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez said Israel should be excluded from the competition because of the war in Gaza. He compared the situation to that of Russia, which was banned after its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Spanish broadcaster RTVE and Belgium’s VRT have also called for an investigation into the public vote. Israel received 297 televote points — by far the largest share — and rose from 14th place in the jury vote to second place overall.

In total, viewers in 13 countries, including the Netherlands, gave Israel the maximum 12 points. Israel ended the competition in second place behind Austria because of the mass public support.

Deze dappere vrouw heeft onvoorstelbare verschrikkingen doorstaan.

Toch staat ze trots, sterk – haar licht delend met de wereld.

Yuval is onze heldin 💙

Nu is onze kans om haar liefde en steun te tonen door te stemmen # 04 op https://t.co/vlprYYQjus 🇮🇱

📸 EBU pic.twitter.com/nR1KpIZAVQ

— Israel in Nederland (@IsraelinNL) May 17, 2025

Israel conducted online campaigns in several countries encouraging people to vote for its entry. In the Netherlands, social media posts by the Israeli embassy featured singer Yuval Raphael speaking in Dutch and urging people to vote for her. The advert also reminded people they could vote 20 times.

Finland has also raised questions about the voting system while an investigation by Eurovision News found that the Israeli Government Advertising Agency, which serves various government offices, corporations, government-owned companies, and publicly-owned enterprises, placed advertisements across Google products.

Although promoting a country’s entry is allowed under EBU rules, social media users have raised concerns that these actions may contravene the spirit of the competition by potentially politicising or instrumentalising the voting process.