Eurovision Song Contest

[Pickle]

Since when was Israel part of Europe? Does anyone know why they enter the European song contest? How come they are allowed and not their neighbours Palestine, Egypt and Jordan? (Of course they might not want to...)

[andy hughes]

The clue is in the title - 'Eurovision'. The countries eligible to enter are not those in the continent of Europe, they are the countries serviced by the Eurovision television network, which includes some countries which are thousands of miles from Europe itself, but still elligable for the contest.

[Pickle]

Cheers Andy - always wondered about that.

[rja211077]

it's members of the European Broadcasting Union - see http://www.ebu.ch/en/index.php

[slimjim]

And I suspect that they wouldn't be particularly welcome to join the asian equivalent!

[Gef]

For purely political reasons they are are also part of Uefa - the European Union of Football Associations. Israel is not part of Eurrope but would not wish to play against their Asian neighbours such as Palestine, Egypt etc. Load of nonsense.