Eurovision: Finnish artists want Israel barred from Eurovision over "war crimes"

More than 1,400 Finnish music industry professionals have signed a petition urging a ban on Israel from Eurovision over alleged "war crimes" in Gaza.

If Israel is not excluded from the competition, they want public broadcaster Yle to withdraw Finland's entry from the competition.

Yle has said it is monitoring the position of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), organiser of the contest.

Last month, Icelandic musicians made similar demands to broadcaster Rúv.

Lukas Korpelainen, one of the petition's authors, told newspaper Hufvudstadsbladet it was not acceptable for Israel to "take part in the Eurovision Song Contest to polish its image".

Signatories include Finnish artists Olavi Uusivirta, Paleface and Axel Ehnström, who represented the country in the 2011 contest.

The petition accuses broadcaster Yle of double standards, saying it was among the first to demand a ban on Russia from the 2022 contest, "and we expect the same active defending of values from Yle now as well".

Mr Vilén has said the situation in Israel and Gaza is "not quite the same".

"As gruesome as it is, it is not a war of inter-state aggression like between Russia and Ukraine," he told Finnish tabloid Ilta Sanomat a few weeks ago.

Yle's head of communications Jere Nurminen told Hufvudstadsbladet the company was following the situation and talking to EBU and other public broadcasters.

Yle was also planning to meet the petition's authors, he added.

In mid-December the EBU released a statement saying Eurovision was "for broadcasters - not for governments" and that Israel had taken part for 50 years.

It said member organisations had agreed that Israel's public broadcaster "complies with all competition rules" and insisted the contest was a "non-political event".

The BBC has approached Israel's culture ministry and public broadcaster Kan for comment.

After it emerged that Alexander had endorsed a statement accusing Israel of genocide, an Israeli official told the UK's Telegraph newspaper the arguments were "absurd" and accused signatories of "anti-Israel bias".

More than 23,350 people have been killed in Gaza during Israel's military campaign - mostly women and children - according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.

The war was triggered after an attack by gunmen belonging to Hamas - which is classed as a terrorist organisation by Israel, the US, UK and other Western governments - on southern Israel. About 1,300 people - most of them civilians - with about 240 others taken hostage.

Israel launched retaliatory air strikes on Gaza before mounting a ground operation with the stated aim of "destroying Hamas's military and governing capabilities" as well as freeing the hostages.

A total blocked of Gaza by the Israeli military has cut off supplies of food, medicines and fuel. UN agencies say 26% of Gazans - 576,600 people - have exhausted their food supplies and coping capacities and face "catastrophic hunger and starvation".

According to Unrwa, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, 1.9 million Gazan residents - about 85% of the population - have been displaced, and 1.4 million of them are sheltering in its facilities.