An Israeli former Eurovision winner on Friday reacted to European nations' decision to pull out of the contest after organizers decided to allow Israel to compete.

Public broadcasters in Ireland, the Netherlands, Spain and Slovenia on Thursday pulled out of next year’s Eurovision Song Contest after organizers decided to allow Israel's participation, putting political discord on center stage over a usually joyful celebration of music.

"It all comes together with the anti-Israeli wave that comes from evil people, jealousy of course and lies, so many lies, my God, and brainwash of young people," Izhar Cohen, winner of the 1978 Eurovision contest, said on Friday.

The walkouts came after the general assembly of the European Broadcasting Union — a group of public broadcasters from 56 countries that runs the glitzy annual event — met to discuss concerns about Israel’s participation, which some countries oppose over its conduct of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

At the meeting, EBU members voted to adopt tougher contest voting rules in response to allegations that Israel had manipulated the vote in favor of their contestants, but took no action to exclude any broadcaster from the competition.

The feel-good pop music gala that draws more than 100 million viewers every year has been roiled by the war in Gaza for the past two years, stirring protests outside the venues and forcing organisers to clamp down on political flag-waving.

Bret Katz, a resident of Tel Aviv, described efforts to block Israel’s participation as “terrible.”

"It's a terrible, terrible thing to ostracise a country and not to understand who was attacked on October 7, 2023," he said.

Opponents of Israel's participation cite the war in Gaza, which has left more than 70,000 people dead, according to the territory's Health Ministry, which operates under the Hamas-run government and whose detailed records are viewed as generally reliable by the international community.

Israel’s government has repeatedly defended its campaign as a response to the attack by Hamas-led militants that started the war on October 7, 2023.

The militants killed around 1,200 people — mostly civilians — in the attack and took 251 hostage.

AP video shot by Paz Bar