Tourist attractions located in Judea and Samaria will be absent from the imagery in this summer’s Eurovision Song Contest slated to take place in Israel, Channel 12 reported Thursday.
According to the report, even the Western Wall will largely be absent from the contest.
Typically, before the song entry of a country is presented, a short clip is shown of that country’s delegation at various tourist attractions in the host country. Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation “Kan,” which is co-producing the contest, has chosen not to include tourist sites from Judea and Samaria in the clips, and neither will the Western Wall appear in the clips of any of the delegations - except for that of Israel.
Kan said that the decision was “artistic only” and was not a result of coercion by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which also produces the contest.
An EBU official confirmed to Channel 12 that the EBU had not given such an instruction, but hinted that Kan apparently wanted to avoid an “embarrassing situation” in which the resentment of countries might have drawn negative headlines in Europe.