Finland musicians call for Israel to be excluded from Eurovision Song Contest over Gaza

Finnish musicians and music industry professionals have signed a petition calling for Israel to be excluded from the Eurovision Song Contest, because of the "completely unsustainable" situation in Gaza.

They signed a petition calling on Finnish public broadcaster Yleisradio Oy to pressure the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) to exclude Israel from the competition over the bloody war on Gaza, Finnish media outlets reported.

Failing that, the broadcaster, more commonly known by the acronym YLE, should boycott the competition, the petition's signatories said. 

Some 1,200 people have signed the petition, according to Finnish media, though the authenticity of the signatures could not be verified.

Finnish musician and petition signatory Timo Kamarainen told Finnish outlet Helsingin Sanomat that given the "completely unsustainable" situation in Gaza, Israel's participation in the contest was inappropriate.

"To me, Eurovision represent European community, peace, love, tolerance, equality. Israel doesn't deserve a chance to shine its shield in this situation," Kamarainen said in a Facebook post.

Icelandic musicians in December also called for Israel to be excluded from the competition over the war in Gaza, which has so far killed more than 23,000 people.

The petition pointed out that Russia was expelled from the competition in 2022 because of its invasion of Ukraine.

The EBU quickly dismissed the Icelandic request, saying that Eurovision was "for broadcasters - not for governments", although Russia was banned from the competition in 2022 over the invasion of Ukraine.

YLE had been receiving similar requests in December, at the time that Icelandic artists issued their call, according to a senior staff member at the broadcaster.

Ville Vilen, head of creative content and media at YLE, said that while the broadcaster was "terribly worried and sorry about what is happening in Gaza", it could not be treated in the same way as Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

"We are not reacting in the same way as to the situation in Russia. From our point of view, the conflict in the Gaza Strip, although it is gruesome, has been going on for a long time and it is different from Russia attacking another independent state in Europe," Vilen reportedly said at the time.

The Eurovision Song Contest usually takes place every May.

Ireland's public broadcaster RTE has received hundreds of calls for it to boycott the Eurovision Song Contest due to Israel's involvement in the competition, Irish media reported earlier this week.