Ever since Netta won the Eurovision Song Contest on the 12th of May, discussions have been going on about where the next year’s Eurovision Song Contest is going to be held. After the Mayor of Tel Aviv said his city would not bid for hosting the next year’s Contest and most politicians urging for the Contest to be held in Jerusalem, the Government is now said to drop the demand for it to be hosted in the country’s capital.

Israel’s national broadcaster Kan is going to be the host broadcaster of the 2019 contest. In the past weeks, politicians have insisted that the venue needs to be in Jerusalem, despite reports that some countries and artists could withdraw due to concerns of politicizing the event.

Even though Miri Regev, Israel’s Culture and Sports Minister, threatened to withdraw the country from Eurovision unless the Contest is held in Jerusalem in 2019, Channel 20 news station reports that the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, Minister of Finance Moshe Kahlon, Communications Minister Ayoub Kara and Attorney General – Avichai Mandelblit have concluded in a meeting that they would not interfere in the host city selection, leaving the decision and the discussion completely up to the national broadcaster.

Apart from Jerusalem, four other cities have submitted their bids to host next year’s Eurovision – Haifa, Beersheba, Petah Tikva, and Eilat.