Last year’s winner of the Eurovision Song Contest says they are returning their trophy to the contest’s governing body in protest of Israel’s inclusion in the 2026 competition, adding to a mounting pressure campaign to exclude the genocidal state.

In posts on Instagram on Thursday, singer and musician Nemo Mettler, known as Nemo, said that although they are “immensely grateful” for the community surrounding the contest, “I no longer feel this trophy belongs on my shelf.”

“Eurovision says it stands for unity, inclusion, and dignity for all,” Nemo wrote in a statement. “But Israel’s continued participation, during what the UN’s Independent International Commission of Inquiry has concluded to be a genocide, shows a clear conflict between those ideals and the decisions made by the EBU,

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