From diplomacy to soccer, Israel is becoming a pariah on the global stage

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly on Friday, Sept. 26, 2025, at UN headquarters. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)

Israel is becoming increasingly isolated on the world stage as the war and humanitarian crisis in Gaza continue, with the backlash seeping into economic, cultural and sporting arenas.

International condemnation has soared since Israel announced a ground assault on Gaza City and conducted an unprecedented strike against Hamas leadership on Qatari soil. It also comes as an independent UN inquiry concluded for the first time last week that Israel had committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, a finding that echoes those of other genocide experts and human rights groups, but which the Israeli government has rejected.

Last week, the European Union – Israel’s biggest trading partner – proposed sanctions that would partially suspend its free trade agreement with Israel, if approved by EU member states. Several Western nations have already implemented targeted sanctions against certain Israeli individuals, settler outposts and organizations supporting violence in the occupied West Bank.

The global outcry is hitting Israel’s economy in other ways as well.

In August, Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, the world’s largest, announced it was divesting parts of its portfolio in Israel due to the worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

Israel also faces partial or complete arms embargoes from France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, the United Kingdom and others over its conduct in Gaza.

The backlash has been so stark that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu himself acknowledged it earlier this month, warning that Israel is facing a “kind of isolation” that could last for years, adding that the country has no choice but to stand on its own. Netanyahu said Israel would need to further develop its weapons industry and adapt its economy to become less reliant on external trade. He later downplayed those comments, saying he was talking only about the defense industry.

As the war escalates, Israel is also taking hits in the entertainment and culture sphere.

Broadcasters in several European countries, including Ireland, the Netherlands and Spain, have said they will boycott the much-beloved Eurovision Song Contest if Israel is allowed to participate in 2026. The Irish national broadcaster, RTE, said it “feels that Ireland’s participation would be unconscionable given the ongoing and appalling loss of lives in Gaza.”

Israeli broadcaster KAN 11 has pushed back, saying it will press ahead with selecting Israel’s 2026 contestant and arguing that the musical celebration should “not become politicized.” The European Broadcasting Union, the Eurovision organizer, has said member countries will vote in November about which countries can participate next year. Israel has been part of Eurovision since 1973.

In the fine arts, a music festival in Ghent, Belgium, recently canceled a concert by the Munich Philharmonic, which was set to perform with Israeli conductor Lahav Shani. The festival said in a statement that “Shani has spoken out in favor of peace and reconciliation several times in the past, but… we are unable to provide sufficient clarity about his attitude to the genocidal regime in Tel Aviv.”

The Israeli government has maintained it is conducting the war in Gaza in self-defense and in accordance with international law, firmly denying all accusations of genocide.

In Hollywood, thousands of filmmakers, actors and movie industry workers have pledged not to work with Israeli film institutions “that are implicated in genocide and apartheid against the Palestinian people.” Signatories include Olivia Colman, Emma Stone, Andrew Garfield and Hannah Einbinder, who recently made headlines by ending her Emmys acceptance speech with the words “free Palestine.”

Nor has sport been immune. The final stage of a major bike race was canceled earlier this month after several large pro-Palestinian demonstrations disrupted the event, in protest of the Israel-Premier Tech team’s participation. Also in Spain, organizers of a chess tournament told Israeli players they could not compete under their national flag, prompting them to withdraw from the competition earlier this month, according to Reuters.

And Israeli media outlets have recently reported fears that Israel could be at risk of suspension from European football competitions. In August, UEFA came under fire after a banner was displayed on the pitch ahead of the Super Cup final that read “Stop killing children, Stop killing civilians,” without specifically mentioning Israel or any other nation. Israel’s Culture and Sports minister Miki Zohar said he and other Israeli officials had been “working intensively” behind the scenes “to block the initiative to expel Israel from UEFA.”

Several Premier League soccer players, including Liverpool star Mohamed Salah, have also spoken out against the war in Gaza and called for solidarity with the Palestinian people.

Israel’s ‘South Africa’ inflection point?

The economic and cultural backlash to Israel has sparked comparisons to the pressure placed on South Africa during the era of apartheid racial oppression.

Between the 1950s and 1990s, South Africa faced a strong boycott movement that, little by little, turned it into a pariah. South African products were pulled from grocery stores in the West, campaigners urged divestment and bank exits, and many musicians refused to play in the apartheid state. A sporting boycott saw South Africa’s exclusion from international sporting competitions like cricket and eventually rugby.

“The symbolic has more leverage than the bolts and numbers,” said Ilan Baruch, Israel’s former ambassador to South Africa, who resigned from the Israeli Foreign Ministry in 2011 to protest the government “ditching” its commitment to peace through a two-state solution.

“Eurovision is very popular, and the football tournaments are very, very popular. And if you even mention a connection between the pressure on Israel on policy issues and culture and sports and so on, it will make an impact,” as was the case with South Africa, he told CNN.

Baruch is now the chair of the Policy Working Group, a collection of Israeli academics, activists and former diplomats advocating for the recognition of the State of Palestine and a two-state solution.

He said some assertive pressure on Israel is necessary, arguing it should not be possible for the country to retain “such privilege in its trade relations with the EU” and “at the same time, undermine the Palestinian human rights and future.”

“It’s not the mere trade relations, but the privileged status of Israel that is now in the balance,” he said.

The Israeli government has also faced plenty of opposition within the country, with regular protests against the war and widespread calls to reach a ceasefire to bring home the hostages captured by Hamas militants in their October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.

Meanwhile, for the past two decades, a Palestinian-led civil society campaign, called the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement has tried to replicate the impact of the South African anti-apartheid boycott. After years of marginal success, the movement has gained more attention and traction since the war in Gaza began.

UN developments

This week’s United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) brought further isolation for Israel on the world stage.

Several more Western countries formally recognized a Palestinian state ahead of the UNGA, including diplomatic heavy hitters like Canada, France and the United Kingdom.

And a fresh analysis of key UNGA votes on resolutions related to Israeli-Palestinian affairs between 2017 and 2025, conducted by Robert Satloff, the executive director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, found that some of Israel’s longtime defenders are “leaving the fold.”

The number of states that have formally abstained from UNGA votes related to Israel – generally seen as passive support for the country – is declining.

“There’s no doubt that there is performative voting here. Some of these countries that voted against Israel have very important, quiet relationships with Israel and are viewed as strong partners,” Satloff told CNN. But from an Israeli perspective, “the trend should be disconcerting when, over time, there’s a clear pattern of once-strong supporters moving in the opposite direction.”

Satloff said the big question is whether Israel’s deepening diplomatic isolation is repairable.

Some UN member states already demonstrated “deep animosity toward Israel” before the current conflict, while other countries “are deeply moved by the specifics of what’s happening in Gaza, and they’re likely to soften their view of Israeli government behavior once the war ends and or when a new government emerges in Israel,” Satloff said.

Meanwhile, the UN commission’s report on genocide in Gaza has drawn renewed attention to the International Criminal Court investigation into the situation in the State of Palestine, with the inquiry recommending that prosecutors examine genocide as part of that case.

The ICC’s issue of an arrest warrant last year for Netanyahu has already severely limited where he can travel outside of Israel. Netanyahu’s flight to the UN meeting in New York this week took a circuitous route – maneuvering around French and Spanish airspace – in an apparent effort to avoid countries that could enforce an outstanding arrest warrant against him for alleged war crimes.

Despite the apparent decline in support from other nations, the United States still firmly votes with Israel.

Speaking earlier this month about the Israeli strike on Qatari soil, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said: “I think the president’s comments speak for themselves on that front. He didn’t like the way it went down. That said… our relationship with Israel is going to remain strong.”

By Lauren Kent, CNN