They’re within the European Broadcasting Area like all countries adjacent to the Mediterranean Sea (plus some adjacent ones). Bring in the EBA is more important here than being in Europe is. There’s no reason why Egypt or Iraq can’t participate.
Okay, there is one – most Arab countries refuse to participate while Israel does. But if Israel didn’t participate they’d be perfectly fine with showing up.
Oh, and there’s one big exemption: Australia can participate because they’ve been such big ESC fans for so long that we invited them for the 60th one as a one-off and then decided to keep them in because they’re cool. It’s pretty wholesome, which is very much in tune with the spirit of the ESC.
They’re within the European Broadcasting Area like all countries adjacent to the Mediterranean Sea (plus some adjacent ones). Bring in the EBA is more important here than being in Europe is. There’s no reason why Egypt or Iraq can’t participate.
Okay, there is one – most Arab countries refuse to participate while Israel does. But if Israel didn’t participate they’d be perfectly fine with showing up.
Oh, and there’s one big exemption: Australia can participate because they’ve been such big ESC fans for so long that we invited them for the 60th one as a one-off and then decided to keep them in because they’re cool. It’s pretty wholesome, which is very much in tune with the spirit of the ESC.
That and Australia is an associate member of the EBU as it uses interoperable technologies.
Another one is that Moroccanoil, a big sponsor of Eurovision, is an Israeli-owned company.
Oh, another European settler-colonial project? Wow, what a wacky coincidence.