Yuval Raphael is an Israeli female vocalist. I’ve just listened to the song she will be singing at the Eurovision contest, and it’s as apolitical as they come; you can listen to it here.
But she is Israel’s entry in this year’s Eurovision contest, which is now being held in Basel, Switzerland, and haters of Jewish state have turned her appearance into an occasion for an anti-Israel protest. She’d like to concentrate on her singing, but the pro-Palestinian stormtroopers are doing everything they can to make her task difficult. As in years past with Israeli contestants, a large contingent of anti-Israel haters will boo, and also scream, whenever they see her, and continue to do so all through her performance, hoping to throw her off her musical stride. Some will chant “From the river to the sea/Palestine will be free,” a chant that means Israel must disappear completely, to be replaced by a 23rd Arab state. That’s not all Ms. Raphael will hear. She will also hear the screams about “apartheid Israel” and “genocidal Israel” and many similar canards, an attempt to turn a musical event into a political attack not just on Yuval Raphael, but on the people, and the country, she represents.
“Undercover agents, no-fly zones: Israel prepares for pro-Palestinian protests at Eurovision,” by Mathilda Heller, Jerusalem Post, May
Security precautions continue to be taken to protect Israel’s Eurovision 2025 contestant, Yuval Raphael, as she begins the competition in Switzerland.
Ahead of the first day of the semi-finals on Tuesday, Israeli officials decided to limit Raphael’s media time, allowing her to give interviews on Monday and Tuesday only. She will not give any additional interviews until after Saturday’s final.
She’s a girl under siege. She needs to save her mental strength for her performance, and can’t afford to expend it on too many media interviews, which, of course, will focus precisely on the upsetting treatment she will be subject to during her performance. Indeed, during the initial parade of the singers, she was roundly booed for the crime of being an Israeli. That cannot help but be unnerving, but Raphael is determined; she’s even been practicing while someone — a fellow Israeli — boos her.
This differs from previous years, where contestants such as Eden Golan and Noa Kirel gave interviews after the semi-finals. Delegation sources told Ynet that they were “protecting Yuval’s voice and Yuval herself.”
Given the expectation of booing and potential pro-Palestinian or anti-Israel interruptions, Raphael told the BBC she has practiced performing while being booed.
“I think I’m expecting it,” she told the British broadcaster. “But we are here to sing and I’m going to sing my heart out for everyone.”
Basel’s law enforcement announced on Tuesday that it was banning all drone flights until 18 May.
“A large no-fly zone for drones is in effect across the entire city center and throughout the cantons of Basel-Stadt and Basel-Landschaft during the Eurovision Song Contest,” the police announced.
Think of what that ban on drones flying anywhere over the city of Basel and the surrounding cantons means: that there is a real fear of an attack by remote-controlled drones either on the contest venue, or on Raphael herself — a potential murder in the making, that the Basel police are determined to prevent.
This comes just two days after 150 pro-Palestinian protesters attempted to interrupt the Eurovision delegation parade on Sunday.
The group Basel 4 Palestine announced prior to the parade that it wished to “turn the turquoise carpet Palestinian,” and called for protesters to come and “refuse to let the Zionist apartheid state use the ESC to spread its genocidal propaganda and artwash its crimes.”…
Let’s for the nth time go through the detailed answer to the false charge that Israel is an “apartheid state.” Arabs sit on Israel’s Supreme Court and in the Knesset, and go abroad as diplomats. A recent head of Israel’s largest bank, Bank Leumi, was an Arab. Jews and Arabs work in the same offices and factories, are treated by the same medical personnel in the same hospitals, play on the same sports teams and in the same orchestras. Jews and Arabs own businesses together, everything from restaurants to high-tech start-ups. What kind of “apartheid” is this?
How does a lone singer, Yuval Raphael, help Israel “to spread its genocidal propaganda”? Does her Eurovision song call for the elimination of a people and a state, the.way the pro-Palestinian protesters do? Of course not. It’s a love song, nothing more — and nothing less — as you will immediately understand if you listen to the song.
Additionally, during the opening parade, a man wearing a keffiyeh and a Palestinian flag made a throat-slitting gesture at Raphael and spat at other Israeli delegates. Israel’s Public Broadcasting Corporation filed a complaint on Sunday with Swiss police….
I’d call that slitting-of-the-throat gesture a death threat, one not to be taken lightly. Did the Swiss police chase him down, the man wearing the keffiyeh and a Palestinian flag, or let him go? Doesn’t that threatening gesture, and the spitting at other Israelis, constitute a hate crime? What about it, Swiss police? Six months in the slammer, and a heavy fine in Swiss francs, should change not his antisemitic mind, but his behavior.
It has been eighty years since the end of World War II and the liberation of those Jews still alive in the Nazi camps. Who could have imagined that eighty years on, Jews would be under such threat threat that in the very heart of Europe they are advised to hide all symbols of their being Jewish? How did it come to this? There are 50 million Muslims now in Europe, carriers of the virus of antisemitism. That’s how.
So this young girl is to be hounded, booed, and threatened with death, all because she is an Israeli. She’s accused of being part of an “apartheid” state, someone whose music — a love song in English — contributes to the “genocidal” nature of the country she proudly calls her own.
The pro-Hamas, and therefore pro-genocide, protesters — there are about 150 of them at the event — are trying to hound Raphael from appearing, or if that doesn’t work, to so upset her during her singing that she won’t be able to perform at her best. Neither will happen. Yuval Raphael has been preparing to sing through their boos. I predict that Yuval Raphael will not only remain splendidly undisturbed by their expressions of spittle-flecked hate, but will come away very close to, or even at, the top.
Dov Berrol says
You forgot the most important part of the story. Yuval survived the October 7 terrorist attack on the Nova Music Festival. She hid in a roadside shelter that eventually was attacked by more terrorists from Gaza. She played dead under the dying bodies of her friends until she was rescued 8 hours later. She entered Israel’s “Hakochav Haba” television competition with no previous background in public singing. She won the competition and her prize was to represent Israel in this week’s Eurovision Song Contest in Basel.
The anti-Israel demonstrators are booing a singer who already faced the worst of Muslim terrorism on October 7, 2023.
Hugh Fitzgerald says
No, I didn’t forget what happened to her on October 7. I decided not to include it, because I thought it might be piling Ossa upon Pelion. I wanted to focus on her mistreatment at Basel, and not on the far greater mistreatment she endured on October 7. But I’m glad you posted the story here.
Dov Berrol says
Thank you Hugh. I have supported Yuval by voting for her today in the “Rest of the World” televote through the Eurovision online voting page – to help her qualify for the Grand Final on Saturday night. She is in the Second Semi-Final which is taking place right now.
Peacelover says
‘It has been eighty years since the end of World War II and the liberation of those Jews still alive in the Nazi camps. Who could have imagined that eighty years on, Jews would be under such threat threat that in the very heart of Europe they are advised to hide all symbols of their being Jewish?’ ….well,with the history of Islam,should we really be surprised?
JS says
Islam is a plague on the world and their Quran is a war manual. Let’s also get it straight, that Mohammed, their prophet and the one they try to emulate was a murderer, bigot, and rapist pedophile. How can anyone expect normal relations when they take the Quran literally? Yes, I may sound harsh- but it’s the truth.
If we are honest, there’s no other way to see it. There will be no peace and lots of death (of us) as long as people follow the quran and their homicidal Mohammed.
Peacelover says
+ you said it(!)
Peacelover says
Total agreement
James Lincoln says
JS says,
“If we are honest, there’s no other way to see it.”
100% true.
If we are honest…
࿗Infidel࿘ says
To the modern day antisemites that are now all over Europe, and increasingly in the US & Canada, the fact that she’s Israeli in the first place is itself political. That alone will keep them from voting for her
I admire what she’s been through & wish her well, but I’m not sure Israel should continue to be a part of the Eurovision song contest
Sara says
Two things: 1) the girl just wants to sing and use her talent; 2) 6 million Jews died during the holocaust and society still hasn’t learned. People just seem to be as stupid as hell.