Organizers of the Eurovision Song Contest say they are assessing whether Israel's entry breaks the rules on political neutrality after it was claimed that singer Eidon Golan's song, October Rain, made reference to the current conflict in Gaza. Well, Israel has warned that it would withdraw from the competition if the ballad is censored. Well, there are two specific sets of lyrics that have caused uproar. I can read some of them to you now. Who told you, boys, don't cry, Hours and Hours and flowers? Life is not a game for the cowards. Now, the reference to flowers is significant because according to the Israel Hayam newspaper, it is a military slang term for war fatalities. These are the other set of lyrics that are being scrutinized. There's no air left to breathe. There's no place, no me from day to day. Well, let's cross live now and speak to Adrian Bradley, who joins us on The World Today. He's a Eurovision expert. Adrian, good to talk to you. Talk to me, first of all, about what the main controversy is here between the two sides, between Eurovision and Israel.

There's been quite an ongoing pressure from a number of countries that are entering Eurovision about Israel's participation in Eurovision. The EBU has been very clear that they don't want to ban Israel. They've said that it's a competition for broadcasters, not governments. They've said that the broadcaster itself has complied with all the rules. But when it comes to the song, the EBU has really strict rules on politics in songs. They've banned songs before, and this is the area where they're in dispute with Israel right now. We don't know exactly. We've heard from papers, some reports of what lyrics are in doubt, and the broadcaster can publish the entire lyrics of the song for everybody to see on Wednesday night after these were leaked, because the song itself wasn't due to be released for another couple of weeks. But the normal process is that the EBU will approve or not approve a song. If it isn't approved and Israel don't make changes or don't submit another song, they won't be able to take part in Eurovision.

It feels, doesn't it, Adrian, that Israel is saying, Look, we're not going to change this song. It's this or we're out.

It does feel like that. There's been precedent for this. In 2021, Belarus were disqualified. This was around the political crisis that was going on in their country and the act that they were told to change their song. Now, this was a band that used to mock anti-government protesters in their songs and believed in the lyrics, They've done that again. They were asked to change the song. They did actually put in a new song, which the EBU said was also inappropriate. At that point, they were disqualified. It also happened in 2009. Georgia had a song called We Don't Want to Put In, which the EBU said the lyrics were criticism of a Russian leader, which Georgia denied. They refused to change it and pulled out the contest that year. There's been precedent for this. It does sound like from all the statements that can be Israeli broadcasters made, that they aren't going to back down. So if they're asked to make any changes to the song, they won't take part. We're getting very close to when there has to be a deadline. March the 11th is the deadline when all the delegations get together and the songs have to be agreed.

So if they haven't come to agreement by then, they won't be taking part.

Okay, Adrian Bradley, good to talk to you. Thank you very much indeed.