Netherlands Withdraws From Eurovision Over Israel's Participation

The Dutch public broadcaster NPO announced on Tuesday that the Netherlands will not participate in the Eurovision Song Contest 2027 as a protest against Israel's involvement. The decision, made after consultations with other Dutch broadcasters, cited a lack of sufficient support for participation.

Despite the withdrawal, the Netherlands will still broadcast the competition through the NOS network, including commentary and preview programs. This move comes just a month after the Netherlands, which also boycotted Eurovision 2026 due to Israel's participation, had declared its intention to return to the contest. The initial decision to return followed the withdrawal of broadcaster AVROTROS, which cited "current circumstances" as incompatible with the organization's values and returned the responsibility for selecting the representative to NPO.

At that time, NPO stated that the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) had made "significant changes" to the rules, aiming to restore unity among European nations. "We understand that participation in Eurovision evokes mixed feelings in the Netherlands. We explicitly asked the EBU to once again make the unifying nature of the competition a central part of it, given the period of geopolitical unrest, wars, and polarization," said Jet de Ranitz, Chairwoman of the Board of Directors of NPO, in a clear reference to the controversy surrounding Israel's participation.

A plan was then developed to split management responsibilities, with an independent expert team selecting the representative and NOS broadcasting the semi-finals and final. The Netherlands' last appearance was in 2025, with Claude's song "C'est la vie" reaching 12th place. The previous year, Dutch representative Joost Klein was disqualified hours before the final following a complaint from a production crew member about alleged threats, with unconfirmed reports linking the incident to harassment from the Israeli delegation.