Israel has won its way through to the Eurovision grand final on Saturday, hours after anti-Israel protesters in Basel, Switzerland, tried to disrupt the country’s dress rehearsal and prevent a survivor of the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack go forward.
The BBC reports Yuval Raphael, 24, was performing “New Day Will Rise” during a preview show Thursday afternoon when six people with whistles and “oversized” Palestinian flags obstructed her act.
Under the arena rules, all flags are allowed but there are limits on size. The protesters and their anti-Israel, pro-Hamas invective follows previous troubles for Israel at the event.
Swiss broadcaster SRG SSR, which is organising this year’s 69th edition, said the audience members were ejected from the St Jakobshalle arena.
Speaking to the BBC earlier this week, Raphael said her team had played audience noises over her rehearsals, “so I can practise when there is distractions in the background.”
The singer clasped her hands together, then blew a kiss towards the sky when it was announced she would progress to the final.
Despite the ongoing tension, her song is currently among the favourites to win, according to bookmakers cited by the BBC.
The troubled rehearsal follows events Sunday when cameras caught an anti-Israel protester at Eurovision opening event, the “turquoise carpet,” making a throat-slitting gesture and spitting in the direction of the Israeli delegation to the competition, as Breitbart News reported.
As Frances Martel from Breitbart has noted, the 2024 Eurovision contest was hosted by the 2023 winner as is tradition: Sweden, which chose the Islamic migrant hub of Malmö, as its host city.
Israel was the invaded party on October 7, but radical leftists and pro-Hamas protesters, including hundreds of artists and Israeli rivals at the contest, demanded unsuccessfully the controlling European Broadcast Union (EBU) oust Israel.
Raphael was present and survived the Hamas terrorist attack on the Nova music festival and is singing the work “New Day Will Rise.”
Pro-Palestinian-activists from BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) take part in a demonstration targeting Israel’s candidate during the Eurovision Song Contest 2025 opening ceremony in Basel on May 11, 2025. (STEFAN WERMUTH/AFP via Getty Images)
Raphael’s song focuses on a message of overcoming hardship and sharing in the pain of grief to press forward toward the future.
The grand final of the contest will take place in St Jakobshalle, an indoor arena in Basel, on Saturday 17 May.
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