Israeli commentators warned to 'remain neutral' and not comment on Bambie Thug

Dublin Live

22-05-2025

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The European Broadcasting Union warned Israel's commentators to "remain neutral" and not make comments about last year's Irish hopeful Bambie Thug.
In May last year, a row erupted after Bambie – who qualified for the final – called on Israel to be removed from the song contest after comments made about them by an Israeli Eurovision commentator on Kan, Israel's public service broadcaster.
The commentator warned viewers that their song Doomsday Blue would be "the most scary" of the night. He also noted that Bambie Thug liked to "speak negatively about Israel".
"But we can talk about that later. Prepare your curses," he said. After last year's Eurovision, it emerged that at least 16 delegations had filed complaints about the Israeli delegation's attitude.
It also emerged that as many as six countries threatened to withdraw half an hour before the start of the final, which included Norway, Greece, Portugal, Ireland, the UK and Switzerland. Now in a leaked document to Spanish website, verTele, the letter from the EBU to KAN shows Israel's slap on the wrist from last year.
The site was given access to the 'warning notice' letter that the EBU sent to the Israeli channel KAN for its attitude at Eurovision 2024, as well as the report resulting from the independent investigation that was carried out after the festival, and the document with which the EBU transferred these 'recommendations' to its 'roadmap'.
The document dated May 11, 2024-the day of the Eurovision 2024 final - is the letter that the European Broadcasting Union sent to the Israeli broadcaster. Emailed to Sharon Drikes, KAN Head of Delegation, it states: "We are writing to you further to the reporting of certain breaches of applicable EBU rules for this year ESC by the members of KAN's delegation.
"These concerns namely the Israeli media team and commentators. In particular, we have received official complaints that the Israeli media team has behaved over the past days in a rather intrusive, offensive and provocative manner towards other delegations.
"In that respect, we would kindly remind you that Participating Broadcasters are all required to respect the filming rules applicable for delegations and the ESC Rules2 which set principles to be respected when filming backstage or in the Event premises.
"In particular, it is expected from Participating Broadcasters to respect privacy, provide fair coverage, avoid harmful or offensive content and does not bring disrepute to the ESC."
The letter also addresses the derogatory comments made by KAN hosts towards other performances. "In addition, it has come to our attention that KAN's commentators have made discriminatory comments towards performances of certain countries, and namely towards the Irish performance.
"In that respect, we would like to remind you that Section 2.2.16 of Part 2 of the ESC Rules3 states that 'commentators shall remain neutral and should not make unduly discriminatory comments about the contestants or the songs'.
"In view of this, we hereby give KAN formal notice to respect the rules applicable to the ESC which are there to protect the smooth operation of the ESC and its integrity."
The letter went on to state that the delegation was moved from the delegation area "in order to avoid further incidents and complaints and we hereby urge you to ensure that all members of your delegation abide by all applicable rules and adopt at all times a behaviour in line with the ESC values."
The Union insisted that in order to punish "any behaviour that damages the reputation and/or integrity of the shows" they could apply financial sanctions , outlining in the same letter the rules of the festival that the Israeli KAN allegedly ignored.
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