The Israeli national broadcaster responsible for the nation’s Eurovision participation, KAN, has surprisingly announced this morning that it cannot guarantee their participation in this year’s contest in Turin due to security issues surrounding the delegation.
In a tweet posted by the broadcaster this morning, they detail that “due to the strike by the foreign ministry, the GSS (General Security Service) can not handle the Israeli delegation to the Eurovision Song Contest, and as of this moment, the Israeli delegation will not participate (…) in Turin”.
בשל שביתת משרד החוץ השב״כ לא יכול לטפל אבטחתית במשלחת הישראלית לאירוויזיון ונכון לרגע זה, המשלחת הישראלית לא תשתתף באירוויזיון 2022 בטורינו.
— כאן (@kann) April 12, 2022
In a later response tweet to a concerned fan, the broadcaster has stated that “all options are being considered” to provide a performance in Turin, such as a live-on-tape recording of Michael Ben David’s entry “I.M”.
כל האפשרויות נבחנות כרגע.
— כאן (@kann) April 12, 2022
Israel was set to be represented by Michael Ben David in Turin with “I.M”, after his victory in the Israeli version of The X Factor earlier this year.
The EBU and Eurovision team have not yet commented on the latest updates from KAN.
This would not be the first instance in recent history that the Israeli participation in the contest is under threat; in 2017 the Israeli spokesperson Ofer Nachshon announced to the contest that their entry would be Israel’s last due to the broadcaster IBA shutting down. In fact, the current broadcaster KAN was started just days later and took over the role of state broadcaster from the defunct IBA, and Israel then participated in and won the 2018 contest.
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