New York Times Investigation Says Israel Ran a “Well-Organised Campaign” to Use Eurovision as Soft Power

An investigation by the New York Times says Israel’s government ran a “well-organised campaign” to turn Eurovision into a tool of soft power, with promotional efforts around the contest dating back to 2018 and intensifying around recent editions.

According to the report, the state-backed push was aimed at helping “burnish the country’s flagging reputation and rally international support,” and raised fresh questions about whether the contest’s voting had been distorted, even as no evidence emerged that Israel used bots or other covert methods to alter the final result.

The Times says the government spent at least $1million (£730,000) on Eurovision marketing, including money from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hasbara office, which handles issues tied to Israel’s public image. In 2024 alone, the paper reports, $800,000 (£587,110) was allocated to “vote promotion” for the contest.

Eurovision rules prohibit government interference in voting, though the contest’s director, Martin Green, previously said Israel’s actions were excessive without being responsible for the country finishing second in 2024, when it was represented by Eden Golan, or again in 2025, when Yuval Raphael came second.

The report also notes that Israel’s contestants drew strong popular votes from countries where Israel is “deeply unpopular,” but stops short of finding evidence that official state activity manipulated the overall scoreboard.

Last year, Netanyahu posted an image online urging people to vote 20 times, the maximum allowed at the time, for Raphael. Multiple pro-Israel groups across Europe reportedly circulated the same image.

Doron Medalie, a former Eurovision songwriter for Israel, defended the tactic in remarks to the outlet: “Everybody is jealous and triggered because Israel is achieving great results”.

Pressure around the voting system escalated after the 2025 contest, when broadcasters from several countries asked to see the voting data and others called for an external investigation. The contest’s director said the governing body would review the vote, though the group was never given a “full vote analysis”.

That scrutiny had already been building the previous July, when Spain called for a debate over Israel’s participation at a broadcaster meeting in London and also pushed for changes to the voting system. Czech broadcasting veteran Petr Dvorak was then hired to interview members of the EBU, or European Broadcasting Union, about Israel’s place in the contest. He later concluded that, while views differed, some “felt that Israel as a state is sometimes using this event as some sort of promotional tool”.

Green later said Israel’s actions had not affected the result at the 2025 contest, though he did not provide a detailed reading of the data. He also advised broadcasters on using social media to drive votes, which the Times framed as an acknowledgment that online campaigning can influence outcomes, even if Israel’s efforts had not changed the end result.

Following a secret ballot, broadcasters agreed to tighten the rules for the 2026 edition, cutting the maximum number of votes per viewer from 20 to 10. But the Times reports that the team behind Israel’s 2026 entrant, Noam Bettan, has already circulated social media material encouraging people to vote for him 10 times.

“Employing a direct call to action to vote 10 times for one artist or song is also not in line with our rules, nor the spirit of the competition,” Green said in a statement, while also insisting that campaigns of that kind cannot change the final outcome.

Israel is still due to take part in the 2026 contest, which begins tomorrow, Tuesday May 12, and runs through the week. In December, Green addressed the decision to include the country in this year’s competition in an open letter to fans, acknowledging that “many of you will be feeling strong emotions at this time,” especially over “events in the Middle East and how those realities connect to the Eurovision Song Contest”.

He also pushed back against demands that Eurovision take a defined political stance, writing: “The only way the Eurovision Song Contest can continue to bring people together is by ensuring we are guided by our rules first and foremost”.

Meanwhile, pressure to exclude Israel has continued to come from No Music For Genocide, whose open letter, first shared on April 21, has been signed by more than 1,100 cultural workers and artists. The letter calls on fans to boycott this year’s Eurovision unless Israel is removed from the competition, and includes signatures from Brian Eno, Massive Attack, Paloma Faith, Paul Weller, Kneecap, Hot Chip, Of Monsters and Men, IDLES, Primal Scream, Sigur Rós, Young Fathers, Mogwai, Black Country New Road, Erika de Casier, Nadine Shah, Dry Cleaning, Ólafur Arnalds, David Holmes, Nemahsis, Macklemore, Roger Waters, Peter Gabriel, Vacations, Smerz, a number of former Eurovision finalists, and others.