National broadcasters in Ireland, Spain and Slovenia will boycott Eurovision this year over Israel’s participation in the song contest.

Slovenian broadcaster RTV said it would implement a broadcasting blackout of the event and instead screen Palestinian films.

“We will not be broadcasting the Eurovision song contest,” RTV director, Ksenija Horvat, told the Associated Press. “We will be airing the film series Voices of Palestine, featuring Palestinian documentaries and feature films.”

A growing number of countries have pulled out of the contest over Eurovision’s decision to allow Israel to compete, including Slovenia, Ireland, Spain, the Netherlands and Iceland.

Spain’s RTVE said last week it would not air Eurovision, while Ireland announced last December that it would neither broadcast the competition nor field an entrant. Ireland’s RTÉ broadcaster said “participation remains unconscionable given the appalling loss of lives in Gaza and the humanitarian crisis there which continues to put the lives of so many civilians at risk.”

While the Netherlands and Iceland will not participate, Eurovision will still be broadcast in both countries.

Earlier this week, thousands of artists including Massive Attack, Kneecap, Idles and Nadine Shah signed an open letter demanding that the European Broadcasting Union ban Israel from the competition and asking fans to boycott the event.

An extract from the letter reads: “We reject Eurovision being used to whitewash and normalise Israel’s genocide, siege and brutal military occupation against Palestinians.”

Sophia Sheera is a journalist in Novara Media’s social media team.

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