Protesters urging Finland’s public broadcaster Yle to boycott Eurovision gathered outside its headquarters in Helsinki on Monday, calling for Finland to pull out of the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 if Israel is allowed to take part.
Around 40 demonstrators stood outside Yle’s main building in the Pasila district for about an hour, holding Palestinian flags and banners and chanting in support of a cultural boycott. The action was organised by the Finnish branch of BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions), an international campaign that calls for economic and cultural pressure on Israel over its actions in Gaza and the occupied Palestinian territories.
Activists push for Yle Eurovision boycott in Helsinki
According to the organisers, the aim of the protest was to put public pressure on Yle ahead of next year’s contest in Vienna. In a statement, the Finnish BDS group said the goal was “to demand that Yle joins the boycott and calls on the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) to defend human rights”.
BDS describes itself as a non-violent movement that seeks to influence governments, companies and cultural institutions to cut or downgrade ties with Israel. In Finland, the network has focused on campaigns targeting universities, consumer brands and high-profile cultural events, including the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC).
Activists argue that allowing Israel to perform at Eurovision while the war in Gaza continues would amount to “artwashing” – using culture to soften the international image of a state engaged in serious human rights violations. For them, a Yle Eurovision boycott would signal that public broadcasters are not willing to treat the song contest as business as usual.
Yle defends participation as a contest between broadcasters, not states
Yle’s leadership has so far rejected calls to withdraw from the competition. After a meeting of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) in Geneva last week, where members agreed to keep Israel in the contest under updated rules, Yle’s CEO Marit af Björkesten said the broadcaster is still preparing to participate.
“It now looks very likely that we will participate, but one criterion is that there is a convincing number of participating companies. That remains to be seen,” af Björkesten said after the EBU meeting.
She underlined that Eurovision is formally a contest between public broadcasters rather than between states. “It’s artists and companies that are competing here, not governments,” she noted, adding that Yle supports new rules intended to strengthen Eurovision as an independent cultural event and to limit direct political influence over entries.
According to Yle, the broadcaster has adopted a year-by-year policy on Eurovision participation, assessing whether the contest remains compatible with its own values and editorial independence. For now, the management believes that staying in the competition, while backing stricter rules on political messaging and voting, offers a more sustainable solution than walking away.
European broadcasters split as some boycott Eurovision 2026
The protest in Helsinki comes just days after several European public broadcasters announced that they will not send delegations to Eurovision 2026 because Israel has been cleared to compete. Broadcasters in Spain, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Ireland have all confirmed that they will sit out the contest in Vienna, citing the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and concerns over Israel’s use of Eurovision as a political platform.
Spain’s withdrawal is particularly significant, as its public broadcaster is one of Eurovision’s major financial contributors. The four boycotting countries argue that allowing Israel to participate undermines the contest’s credibility as a supposedly apolitical cultural event.
The EBU, which represents more than 60 public media organisations in Europe and neighbouring regions, has instead opted for a compromise. It has tightened rules on how governments and third parties can promote entries and has pledged greater transparency in voting, but it has refused to hold a specific vote on excluding Israel.
Other broadcasters, including those from the Nordic countries, have said they support the updated rules while remaining in the contest. Iceland’s public broadcaster RÚV has postponed its final decision on participation, saying it will continue internal discussions in light of Israel’s inclusion and the growing boycott.
What the Eurovision boycott debate means for the Nordics
For Finland and its Nordic neighbours, Eurovision is not just a popular television event but also a platform where public service media project values and identity to the rest of Europe.
In the past decade, Nordic countries have used the contest to showcase LGBTQ+ visibility, multilingual performances and artistic experimentation. At the same time, they have pushed for the exclusion of Russia after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, arguing that public broadcasters should defend basic principles of international law.
The current dispute over Israel’s participation places Nordic broadcasters in a more difficult position. On one side are domestic audiences, artists and civil society groups who see a boycott Eurovision stance as consistent with earlier decisions on Russia. On the other side is a broad EBU coalition that wants to keep Israel in the competition under tighter rules, warning that a growing boycott could weaken the contest as a shared European platform.
For now, Yle is trying to hold the middle line: remaining inside Eurovision while emphasising the independence of public broadcasters and the need for clear limits on political influence. Monday’s protest shows that this position will continue to face scrutiny in Finland, as campaigners seek to keep the Yle Eurovision boycott on the agenda in the run-up to the 2026 contest.
