Lebanon pulls out of European Song Contest

"Tele Liban", Lebanon's public broadcaster, has pulled out of this year's Eurovision Song Contest in Kiev in order to avoid the possible embarrassment of broadcasting an Israeli victory. “According to Lebanese national legislation, Tele-Liban is not permitted to broadcast the performance of the Israeli participant, thereby breaching the rules of the Eurovision Song Contest 2005,” said a statement posted Friday on Eurovision’s Web site. The station will pay a fine. “Lebanon is in a state of war with Israel,” Ibrahim Khoury, Tele-Liban’s director, told the news agency "Associated Press". “If the Israeli contestant wins, we would have to show the celebrations.” Israel has won the European Song Contest three times. This year, Lebanon would have participated for the first time in the popular competition jointly produced by Europe's public TV broadcasters and drawing a huge audience across the continent.