Sir, – Barry Walsh is of the view that, because of broad support for the Israeli entry, those countries who boycotted this year’s Eurovision Song Contest are “badly out of touch with public opinion on the subject across Europe”, (Letters, May 20th).
Curiously, Walsh omits to mention that the popular vote is not confined to Europe. People around the world, including in the US, can vote multiple times whether or not they are even tuned in to the programme.
It has been reported that, over the past three years, the Netanyahu government has spent around $1 million (€860,000) on a get-out-and-vote campaign including paying for giant billboards on Times Square. In 2025, Netanyahu posted on Instagram, urging people to vote “20 times”.
The fact is that for reasons of soft power, Israel has been determined to win the Eurovision and, in order to achieve that, has politicised the event.
RM Block
In response, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) has reduced the maximum number of votes that can be made per individual payment method from 20 to 10.
However, I would suggest that more needs to be done to ensure that the competition retains its appeal and that external interference from governments, such as has been perpetrated by Israel, is forever a thing of the past. – Yours, etc,
MARTIN MCDONALD
Terenure,
Dublin 12.
Sir, – Barry Walsh (Letters, May 20th) refers to the high score received by Israel both last year and this year at the Eurovision Song Contest. Perhaps he hadn’t heard that the voting rules for the contest were changed this year, because of alleged lobbying and interference by the Israeli government in last year’s vote.
Given the result this year, it would appear that the rules weren’t changed enough. – Yours, etc,
DANNY BOYD,
Belfast.
