Terrified by Music: Who Could Represent Israel at Eurovision 2026?

An Apocaylptic image of a flooded Eurovision arena, with a burning slogan "Terrified by Music"; AI image by Ivan Kralj / Reve.
© Ivan Kralj / Reve

If you somehow missed the now-routine question of why Israel is in Eurovision but Russia isn’t, the short and utterly unconvincing answer is that the European Broadcasting Union does not compare conflicts (except, of course, when it does, by excluding one country and not the other). A worn-out wishful mantra also says that the song contest is apolitical (even though, in the midst of the project’s greatest credibility crisis, Austria’s public broadcaster ORF risks exclusion itself by performing a political act of traveling to Jerusalem, to meet the President of Israel and reassure His Excellency that his country is warmly expected in Vienna).

The never-weaker EBU confirmed Israel’s Eurovision 2026 participation, so they’d like us all to focus on the music again, that magical art form that dissolves borders, unites “good and brutal”, singers and sinners, musicians and munitions, violins and violence… All within a non-political spectacle of performed neutrality.

Now that the “troublemakers” are out (Spain, Ireland, Slovenia, Iceland, and the Netherlands, the moral Big 5 of the contest, have left the Israel-infested institution), even some fans are asking for Eurovision to return to “its core” – music. Which, you know, exists in a vacuum.

The problem with Israel’s participation is not just artwashing, but also the insistence that singing and dancing in a graveyard is acceptable

“Music-first” activists fail to understand the point of cultural boycotts because they see them as actions attacking artists, not governments (which instrumentalize those same artists to manufacture normality and launder genocide-affected reputations).

To explain how the camouflage works, journalist Emre Barca (Daily Sabah) recalls Hannah Arendt’s concept of the “banality of evil”, where even monsters like Adolf Eichmann could enjoy a family picnic.

Comfortably nibbling biscuits on Eurovision’s picnic blanket, Giannis Argyriou (Eurovisionfun) sees hope for a “truly apolitical Eurovision” because none of the potential Israel Eurovision entrants are connected to October 7, and broadcaster KAN might send a “joyful and carefree song” this time (sic!).

The problem with Israel’s participation is not just artwashing, but also the insistence that singing and dancing in a graveyard (including a graveyard of innocents) is acceptable.

If Israeli society, under its current circumstances, insists on a song contest (!) as a project of utmost importance, that is not evidence of its normality, but a symptom of an untreated disease.

A society whose content creators mock Palestinian suffering, and whose bands project Gaza bombings as concert backdrops, is unhealthy, desensitized, detached from reality, and over the edge of moral bankruptcy.

Need proof? To assist broadcaster KAN in the search for the next Rising Star, we dove into Israel’s vast pool of musical talent that already produced “joyful and carefree songs” on social media over the years.

Here are possible Israel Eurovision entries for 2026!

Israel Eurovision Candidates for 2026

1. Junior Genocide – Kids Crossing the Line

Israel’s public broadcaster KAN has not participated in Junior Eurovision since 2018. They stated that, instead of pouring money into an expensive, limited-broadcast JESC, they’d rather invest in local shows for children that could be enjoyed year-round.

On November 19, 2023, one such “local show” shocked everyone. The broadcaster that “never broke any of EBU rules” published a war song performed by young children dressed in black. They sang about annihilation. Not metaphorical but deadline-based annihilation. Within a year.

 

Based on an Israeli poem about the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, the song titled “The Friendship Song” (?!) exploited children singing against the footage of Gaza reduced to rubble.

“Autumn night falls over the beach of Gaza
Planes are bombing, destruction, destruction
Look, the IDF is crossing the line
To annihilate the swastika-bearers.

In another year, there will be nothing there
And we will safely return to our homes
Within a year, we will eliminate them all
And then we will return to plow our fields.”

Ofer Rosenbaum, the creative force behind the controversial video and founder of The Civil Front, an organization dedicated to restoring domestic support for the Israeli army, assumed the public would love to hear children’s voices glorifying genocide, in harmony.

After the backlash against the song that exposed how nationalism is taught, rehearsed, and aestheticized, KAN quietly removed the video.

2. Sing-Along Airstrikes

Why should only children have all the fun when bombing another country can entertain an entire family?

The parody song “Bomb Iran” (best known through Vince Vance & the Valiants’s 1980 version) enjoyed an unexpected revival on the terrace of an Israeli family shortly after the outbreak of the so-called Twelve-Day War in June 2025.

Israel bombed Iran’s nuclear facilities, assassinated military leaders and scientists, and killed civilians. Naturally, this inspired a family sing-along.

Armed with a bass, a guitar, and a tambourine, the family gathered outdoors and, united by music, delivered their message to the world. The resulting video went viral, accumulating more views in a matter of days than Vince Vance’s version managed over decades.

 

The lyrics were performed with enthusiasm and the confidence of people convinced they were on the right side of history, and possibly of God:

“We bombed Iran
We bombed Tehran
We blocked their plan
‘Cause when you’re messing with the Jews
You’re always gonna lose
It’s God’s plan, and God rules the land
Bomb bomb bomb bomb bomb Iran.”

This was not state television. No broadcaster needed to approve it. Just a family, and a catchy tune – proof that when culture fully internalizes war, the state no longer needs to sing at all.

3. Till Death Do Us Party

In December 2015, a video surfaced from a wedding in Jerusalem where far-right extremists celebrated the killing of Ali Dawabsheh, an 18-month-old Palestinian baby burned alive months earlier in a settler arson attack.

A disturbing “festive” video showed wedding guests dancing with guns and knives, a masked youth raising a firebomb, a guest repeatedly stabbing a photograph of the murdered toddler, and others parading assault rifles and what appeared to be a Molotov cocktail.

The soundtrack combined parts of a Psalm text with rock theatrics:

“The infidels roar, roaring for prey and asking God to eat.
Next in line, we are hungry. Waiting, waiting for more, Lord of the world.
Vengeance will avenge one of my two eyes.
Revenge one of my two eyes from Palestinians”

Even Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu found the video “shocking” (that says a lot), and warned that it revealed “the true face of a group that constitutes a danger” to society.

Of course, this was all a decade before Netanyahu’s policies burned, stabbed, bombed, and murdered over 20,000 innocent children in Gaza, exposing his own “true face”.

At least seven settlers involved in what became known as the “blood wedding” were eventually convicted, which may complicate their availability for international cultural exchange.

Fortunately, a wildly popular religious-pop singer Hanan Ben Ari, who has publicly chanted the same two-eyes-from-Palestine revenge alongside IDF soldiers, might be ready to take the microphone in Vienna.

“Avenge but one of my two eyes from Palestine.
Curse their name!
That I may be this once avenged of Palestine for my two eyes.
Remember me, I pray Thee, and strengthen me
I pray Thee, only this once, O God,
Remember Me, Remember me.”

 

4. Torturing hostages with a children’s song

People get the message best if we employ repetition. Israelis who paid for 25 million Yuval Raphael’s ads in just two weeks (to win Eurovision, which itself reached half that number in YouTube views) know this principle the best. You cannot overdo repetition.

The children’s song “Meni Meni Meni Mamtera”, performed by entertainer Meni Tzukerl, received such a level of popularity in Israel that it was used to torture kidnapped Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. They would play the track on loop to blindfolded detainees for up to eight hours, to disorient them, prevent communication, and extract information. A nursery tune as an interrogation tool.

 

Meni Mamtera, who previously made headlines for chanting the anti-Arab slogan “May your village burn” at a wedding, would have to shorten his song to fit Eurovision’s three-minute standard, but surely he could create something as torturous as his most popular hit. While Eurovision’s strict rules allow only six handcuffed hostages dancing on stage, the official music video would face no such limitations.

‘Kidnap Palestinians and expose them to the tune’ became a real TikTok challenge, embraced even by a well-known politician/journalist Yinon Magal. Mockery turned participatory. News channel N12 dubbed the humiliating trend “Israel’s secret weapon”, while VINnews framed it as a “humorous story”, saying that “brokenhearted Israelis sought something to laugh about in the wake of the attacks”.

5. Burning villages and calories simultaneously

If Israel were looking to represent itself at Eurovision with a truly multifunctional entry – one that works equally well at weddings, nightclubs, protests, and gyms – “May Your Village Burn” would be an inspired choice.

This genocidal hate chant gained notoriety through supporters of the football club Beitar Jerusalem, particularly the La Familia fan group, known for extreme nationalist rhetoric. The phrase later migrated into far-right marches and anti-Arab protests. It was picked up by fringe political groups and then amplified online during conflicts.

The version that appeared as a clip in front of fitness influencer Hen Ben Moha’s 189k followers featured an elaborate choreography, which is a crucial ingredient of any Eurovision performance worth remembering.

The social media personality, known for motivational posts, published a short workout video showing women exercising in a gym while chanting a well-known, hostile, and inflammatory slogan. Nationalism repackaged as lifestyle content, genocide woven into a wellness routine.

The video went instantly viral, proving that burning villages pairs perfectly with burning calories.

6. Rape is the new Rap

In a country where the sacredness of raping Palestinians has been defended by protests, applause to rapists, and parliamentary sympathy,  it would be a missed cultural opportunity not to dedicate a “joyful and carefree” Eurovision song to this particular local tradition, for now not yet added to UNESCO’s List of Intangible Cultural Heritage.

Conveniently, the song already exists. Often described as an unofficial anthem of the Israeli club Maccabi Tel Aviv. “The Rape Song” delivers explicit calls to sexual violence and dehumanization:

“Your females are Arab wh*res (…)
We will f*ck you all
And drink your blood (…)
We will r*pe your daughters.”

If rape can be defended as a national sport in public discourse, it is very logical that some sports fan clubs will step in to cheer on the patriotic act.

Birmingham police might have kicked out Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from the Europa League match against Aston Villa in November 2025, but already in December, the same supporters managed to perform their lovely song in Stuttgart. In the absence of real ones, the effective staging was enhanced with smoke bombs. German police declined to intervene because it wouldn’t be nice if someone called them anti-Semitic.

During the same Stuttgart visit, Maccabi Tel Aviv fans showed the width of their musical repertoire, and lauded IDF, again as Israel D*ck Forces:

“Ole ole, ole ole ole
Let the IDF win & f**k the Arabs
Ole ole, ole ole ole
Why is school out in Gaza?
There are no children left there!”

7. Occupiers against Amalek

Israeli soldiers, it turns out, require no backing vocals from football fans or wedding guests. They are perfectly capable of singing for themselves.

In a video circulated in December 2023, members of the IDF gathered up in a giant boy band rehearsal. They jumped, clapped, and sang in unison, praising a Torah commandment that calls for the eradication of Amalek, the mythical, evil enemy of Israel. There are no innocents in Gaza, they sing. At least, innocent Palestinians are nowhere mentioned in the Hebrew Bible.

“I’m coming to occupy Gaza
And beat Hezbollah
I stick by one mitzvah,
To wipe off the seed of Amalek.
(…)
I left home behind me
Won’t come back until victory
We know our slogan,
There are no ‘uninvolved civilians’.”

There is no need here for irony or satire. The song simply states that there are no civilians – only targets.

8. Ode to divine protection

In the same period (December 2023), while October 7 survivor Yuval Raphael was still mapping out her Eurovision route, fearless voices were already singing in the occupied West Bank, with a captive audience that didn’t apply for tickets.

Israeli soldier Shimon Frenkel uploaded a TikTok video featuring a duet with a fellow soldier. The setting was a moving vehicle. Blindfolded and handcuffed Palestinian detainees were transported in the back seats like stage props that had wandered into the frame.

There was no shame in displaying their prey, real people, as scenography. After all, Palestinian faces need to be properly covered to double as décor. But no fear of judgment here, as God is on the side of “chosen people”, no matter how they treat Amalek.

“We have the king of the world.
He protects us from everyone”

The line absolves in advance and blesses retroactively. It reassures the singers that whatever happens in the back seat – humiliation, fear, disappearance – has already been approved at the highest possible level.

9. Making kebab from Muslims

People can indeed get united by music, but if the music is about food, you can count that bloodthirsty songs will open the appetite of many.

In a TikTok video from November 2023, the mere idea of treating enemies as meat worth skewering and grilling, like kebab, caused euphoria that Loreen could only dream of.

@ahmed.shaqer #غزة ♬ original sound – S H A Q E R

Enjoy the lyrics of the world’s most moral army:

“We have explosive bombs, and you have mermaids.
Where is your Prophet Muhammad?
Your prophet will not help you now. (…)
Explosions every week
We made kebab from you
Don’t play with Israel.
Hide, animals!”

This was no coded language. It was a song about killing Muslims, framed as barbecue. Violence served hot.

Enemies are animals, animals are meat, and meat exists to be consumed.

Eurovision rules, regrettably, forbid the use of live animals on stage, so any Palestinian-sourced human decor would need to be neutralized beforehand.

10. Mosquitos in a mosque

When not spit-roasted for Israeli shawarma, Muslims in Israel and the occupied territories have to endure other regular roasts by their neighbors.

From Sukkot to Hanukkah, some Israelis enjoy celebrating Jewish holidays with a direct provocation. And if we know anything about the success at Eurovision, it is that provocative acts tend to rank well.

As extensively documented on social media, hundreds of Israeli settlers have been known to storm the courtyard of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem and perform uninvited singing and dancing rituals.

These actions are escorted by the Israeli occupation forces, which simultaneously expel Palestinian worshippers from one of Islam’s holiest sites.

Even Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu, one of the internationally most wanted Israeli voices, participated in these intrusive celebrations, which can only mean we should all hear more about this music project in the future.

11. Who is going to live in a prison? Moshiko!

Obviously, Israel has many still anonymous musical talents. But perhaps Eurovision 2026 calls for some already established name.

Moshiko Mor, a Mizrahi (Middle Eastern Jewish) pop singer with 200k YouTube subscribers, could certainly be Israel’s new Eurovision contestant.

In one of his “audition tapes”, Mor leads the audience in a call-and-response exercise.

“Who doesn’t have water, food & electricity?”

“Gaza!”, the crowd shouts.

“Who is going to live in tents?”, Moshe Mor continues.

“Gaza!”, the audience answers again.

Besides proving how well-informed Israeli audiences are (all answers correct!), this footage exposes how skilled Israeli musicians can be when it comes to crowd management.

Okay, there is this minor detail that Moshiko has been indicted for rape and aggravated sodomy earlier this year. But surely there are numerous Maccabi fans (see no. 6) who would vote for the guy whose lawyers described him as a “family man”, which naturally means he could never assault a “divorced woman”.

12. Lifting spirits with warmongering

Another Israeli singer influenced by Mizrahi sound, and a plausible Israel’s Eurovision representative in 2026, is Narkis Reuven‑Nagar, simply known as Narkis.

She is of Yemeni and Persian Jewish ancestry, and as much as it would be interesting to hear her cover of “Bomb Iran” (see no. 2), surely some of her other work steeped in religious and biblical motifs could, in theory, claim the trophy in Austria. After all, Narkis is widely recognized as one of the most distinctive voices in Israel’s contemporary spiritual-pop scene.

Let’s see her at work, modestly dressed and with always neatly covered hair, singing with Israeli soldiers tasked with retrieving bodies from southern Israel.

“We are finishing off Gaza
We’ll return Gush Katif [former Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip]
We are a light unto the non-Jews”

 

When questioned about the apparent genocidal overtones, Narkis insisted that her intention was not to call for the destruction of Gaza, where she herself grew up, but rather to “lift the spirits of a group of traumatized soldiers”.

In a separate interview regarding October 7, the artist emphasized how important it is to remember that “there is a Creator, and that this happened for some reason, even if we don’t know that reason. Our job now as the people of Israel is to be united.”

By music? Narkis could, in theory, lift the spirits of Eurovision audiences traumatized by the broadcast propaganda that suggested there was genocide in Gaza.

13. ‘Wh*re’ doesn’t stand for ‘where’

Another Narkis and another Mizrahi-pop artist – Lior Narkis – could hop over to Austria as Israel’s representative at Eurovision 2026.

That wouldn’t be his first appearance on the EBU’s stage. At ESC 2003 in Riga, Lior Narkis represented Israel with “Words of Love”, a heartfelt quest for the perfect phrase to formulate the most intimate feelings. He finished 19th.

The artist who comes from a family of Iraqi and Serbian Jewish heritage (his cross-nationality positions him neatly among the most famous Eurovision contestants) was much more direct than the female Narkis when he addressed IDF soldiers in November 2023.

These were his words:

“Gaza, you black woman, you trash,
Gaza, you b*tch
Gaza, daughter of a huge wh*re,
Like your mother, Gaza
Gaza, you wh*re”

Two decades after singing ‘I love you’ in multiple European languages, Lior did his best to express his deepest emotions towards Gaza, too. It would be a pity for Eurovision audiences to forget this endless romantic, always on the lookout for new love languages.

14. Promising death to Gaza

Rinat Bar, another member of Israel’s mainstream Mizrahi music scene, could also be a potential addition to Eurovision’s 2026 line-up.

Born into a Georgian Jewish family, Rinat is an artist whose music “bridges cultural divides” (Viberate).

That bridge, however, appears to be made of glass. In November 2023, videos circulated online showing Bar performing for armed Israeli soldiers, singing lyrics that openly promised death not only to Hamas and Hezbollah leaders Yahya Sinwar and Hassan Nasrallah, but also to Gaza itself.

Adding another layer of controversy, the song plagiarized the melody of the beloved Egyptian classic “Bint Al Sultan”. Introducing the performance as being sung “by all that is sacred” and “with all the love for you”, Rinat Bar delivered the following rhymes:

“Dear Yahya Sinwar,
Along with Nasrallah,
You will die tomorrow,
As all of Gaza”

Using a familiar Arabic melody to carry Hebrew verses explicitly promising death to named political figures and to an entire population, Bar aligned herself seamlessly with the rhetoric of official Israel. In doing so, she positioned herself as a valid representative of the country for future international appearances, making everyone proud. Douze points, indeed.

15. The real hit list – Beheading Dua Lipa

If Eurovision 2026 wanted an act that is truly viral, catchy, and morally indefensible, Israeli hip-hop duo Nessya (Nesia) Levy and Dor Soroker (Stilla) could be prime candidates.

In 2023, their song “Harbu Darbu” (or “Charbu Darbu”) reached #1 in Israel, becoming a hip-hop wartime anthem.

With 36 million YouTube views and 12.5 streams on Spotify, it was one of the most played songs in the country.

What explains its popularity? The song explicitly calls for the death of Hamas leaders like Ismail Haniyeh and Mohammed Deif, but also puts the target on the names of Western celebrities known for expressing pro-Palestinian views.

“All the IDF units are ready, in the mood to put
The heat of the sword on your head
(…)
Bella Hadid, Mia Khalifa, Dua Lipa
Every dog’s day will come”

Released in the aftermath of October 7, during a period of national trauma, the track resonated with young Israelis. Drill and trap beats, emotional intensity, and viral-ready hooks made it an instant TikTok and Instagram reel sensation, doubling as a hype song for soldiers.

If it worked in Israel, the most “European” country in the Middle East, maybe genocidal hip-hop that praises the inscription of Israeli children’s names on bombs dropped on Gaza, rains hell on “rats” who shout “Free Palestine”, literally spits on sons of Amalek and calls for more destruction, military action and displacement, can become a true Eurovision summer hit of 2026.

Israel and Eurovision 2026 – Conclusion

Not all Israeli musicians actively support the genocidal policies of their government. But this article has not attempted to dissect Israeli ethnicity or identity, but representation. On that front, social media platforms already select which songs represent Israel globally. So if Eurovision is about cultural representation, then perhaps Israel’s most honest ambassadors are already performing. Just not on the song contests.

The Israel Eurovision controversy doesn’t even rest on the type of song they would like to represent themselves with on the greatest televised music stage. Whether it’s another syrupy “power ballad” or a “joyful and carefree song”, there is no right way to artwash a nation whose global image has been shaped, over the years, by violent acts and propaganda.

Rather than letting the world form its own understanding of Israel’s position in the Middle East, the official approach to Eurovision mirrors its approach to neighbors: aggressively, violently, and with the assumption that audiences are too naïve to see through the fabrication. Israel’s path through Eurovision is littered with fake applause, fake cheers, and fake votes – a stage-managed illusion of normalcy.

No “united by music” propaganda can fix what was broken during the live broadcast of the genocide

The fact that a country, despite deep domestic crises, insists on embedding itself in Eurovision at all costs (those costs, summing up just Moroccanoil’s sponsorship and government’s purchase of over 25 million ads, are literally humongous, even if we exclude truly pricy negative effects on the nation’s image), tells us that Eurovision’s holy grail is not just the obsessive target of Israel’s musical pathos, but also – pathology.

While KAN debates who will represent Israel at Eurovision 2026 to appeal to international voters, it goes unrecognized that Israel has been representing itself in numerous non-Eurovision contexts over the years. No “united by music” propaganda can fix what was broken during the live broadcast of the genocide.

Instead of wasting money on yet another Eurovision participation that might drag the entire contest into the grave without achieving the desired outcome, Israel might better allocate its resources to the unavoidable future work: war reparations, trauma support on both sides, and building a healthier society capable of receiving criticism without turning on the anti-Semitic alarm. A society that can confront itself honestly instead of being brainwashed by its politicians and media.

Maybe EBU, if it already has such media among its members, could have the same goal as well.

What do you think about Israel’s representation in Eurovision? 
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From children’s war songs to viral hip-hop anthems, the real soundtrack of Israel reveals how music can be used to normalize violence. Who should represent Israel at Eurovision 2026?

Ivan Kralj

Editor

Award-winning journalist and editor from Croatia

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