Austria’s public broadcaster ORF said it will not block Palestinian flags in the audience or mute crowd reactions during Israel’s performance at the next Eurovision Song Contest, setting a different tone from recent editions that drew criticism over crowd control.
The announcement comes ahead of the 70th Eurovision final in May, which Austria will host after winning the 2024 contest. Organizers confirmed the show will proceed with 35 participating countries, the smallest lineup since 2003, following boycotts by several national broadcasters over Israel’s inclusion.
At a news conference in Vienna, Eurovision executive producer Michael Kroen said ORF would allow all official flags, provided they meet legal and security requirements.
“We will allow all official flags that exist in the world, if they comply with the law and are in a certain form,” Kroen said, referring to size and safety rules. He added that the broadcaster would not attempt to soften or hide crowd responses. “We will not sugarcoat anything or avoid showing what is happening, because our task is to show things as they are.”
ORF’s director of programming, Stefanie Groiss Horowitz, said the broadcaster would also avoid artificial sound effects. “We will not play artificial applause over it at any point,” she said, addressing concerns raised after crowd noise was altered during Israel’s performance at a previous contest.
The Eurovision Song Contest is typically billed as a celebration of pop music and cross border culture. This year, it has become a flashpoint for political tension tied to the war in Gaza.
Broadcasters in Spain, Ireland, the Netherlands, Iceland and Slovenia have said they will not take part, arguing it would be unacceptable to compete while Israel remains in the contest amid the scale of civilian casualties in Gaza. Their withdrawal has reduced the number of entries to 35.
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Israel’s broadcaster KAN has rejected calls for exclusion. Its chief executive previously described efforts to bar Israel as a form of cultural boycott, according to Reuters.
ORF and the Austrian government have publicly supported Israel’s right to compete. ORF director general Roland Weissmann visited Israel in November in a show of solidarity, Israeli media reported.
Israel’s 2025 entrant, Yuval Raphael, survived the Hamas led attack on the Nova music festival in October 2023, an event that has featured prominently in public debate around Israel’s participation.
The war in Gaza began after Hamas militants killed about 1,200 people in southern Israel and took 251 hostages, according to Israeli authorities. Gaza health officials say Israel’s military response has killed more than 70,700 Palestinians, most of them civilians. The figures cannot be independently verified.
Despite the controversy, Eurovision remains one of the world’s most watched broadcasts. The European Broadcasting Union said this year’s contest drew about 166 million viewers worldwide, more than the audience estimated by Nielsen for the Super Bowl.
