People hold a banner at a demonstration to stop Israel’s participation in Eurovision, outside the City Hall in Malmo, Sweden, April 10, 2024. Photo: Reuters

Jean Philip de Tender — the deputy director-general of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which organized the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest — on Sunday addressed the controversy surrounding Israel’s participation in the international competition.

Appearing on Sky News, he also insisted that “the situation with Russia is different” when asked why Russia and Belarus were not allowed to compete this year in the competition, which will take place from May 7-11 in Malmo, Sweden.

“First of all, we do understand the concerns and deeply held views that many people have around the war in the Middle East, and I think nobody can remain untouched by the profound suffering of everybody involved in that war,” De Tender began saying. “The Eurovision Song Contest is a music event, which is organized and co-produced by 37 public broadcasters, so it’s not a competition between nations or governments.”

For months, anti-Israel activists around the world have tried to pressure the EBU to disqualify or disinvite the Jewish state from the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest because of its ongoing war against Hamas terrorists controlling the Gaza Strip — a conflict triggered by Hamas’ invasion of southern Israel and massacre of civilians on Oct. 7. Participating artists have faced pressure to pull out of the Eurovision event as a way to boycott Israel’s involvement, and Israel’s representative in the contest, Eden Golan, has reportedly received death threats. Israel also increased the threat level for traveling to Malmo in response to threats of potential terrorist attacks that could target Israelis visiting the city for the Eurovision.

De Tender told Sky News that when the governing bodies of the EBU, which is a member-led organization, reviewed Israel’s involvement in this year’s Eurovision, they concluded that the Israeli public broadcaster Kan had “met all of the obligations” listed in the competition’s rules that would allow them to take part in the Eurovision. The circumstances were different regarding’s Russia’s involvement in the Eurovision competition, De Tender added.

“With Russia there was a broad consensus within the membership of the EBU that they could not participate,” he said. In addition, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and amid the ongoing war between the two countries, the three Russian members of the EBU were removed for being in breach of member obligations.

“And that is not the case with Kan,” De Tender explained. He said Eurovision steers clear of politics and that if the EBU would exclude Kan because of something outside of competition rules “that would have been a political decision.”

Golan skipped the opening event of the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest on Sunday night to instead hold a small ceremony marking Holocaust Remembrance Day, which started that night in Israel.