Israel’s Yuval Raphael overcame protests and personal trauma to win the public vote and secure second place at the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest in Basel, Switzerland. The Times of Israelhas the story.
Raphael received the most votes from the public, 297, out of any of the 26 finalists, but was only 14th place in the jury vote, landing Israel with a second-place finish.
Austria topped the jury vote and finished fourth in the televote to take the win with its operatic ballad ‘Wasted Love.’ …
The contest’s final result was announced as sirens sounded across central Israel, after the launch of a missile fired by the Houthis in Yemen.
Israel received 12 jury points — the highest possible — from only one country, Azerbaijan. …
“Thank you Europe, Am Yisrael Chai,” Raphael shouted from the stage after completing her song, the emotional power ballad ‘New Day Will Rise.’
According to Israeli reporters in Basel, security thwarted two separate attempts by protesters to rush the stage during Raphael’s performance. …
During Raphael’s performance, some loud whistles could be heard in the arena, but not on the live TV broadcast. …
As Raphael performed, a few hundred people staged an anti-Israel protest in Basel, accusing Israel of genocide and calling for it to be barred from the competition. Some protesters burned Israeli and American flags and fired off smoke bombs.
Blows were exchanged and police used tear gas and rolled in a water cannon truck as they worked to block demonstrators from marching through the centre of the northern Swiss city. …
Over the past year, the European Broadcasting Union steadfastly refused any and all calls for Israel to be barred from the competition. The public broadcasters of Ireland, Spain, Slovenia and Belgium appealed to the EBU to ban Israel, and the organisers responded that they would hold a “wider discussion amongst members in due course”.
Both the Belgian and Spanish broadcasters aired pro-Palestinian messages ahead of and during the Eurovision broadcasts. Spain’s RTVE flashed a screen that read in English and Spanish: “When human rights are at stake, silence is not an option. Peace and Justice for Palestine.”
A message from Belgium’s Flemish VRT broadcaster said it was interrupting the broadcast to protest Israel’s “violation of human rights” as well as its destruction of “freedom of the press”. …
Raphael, a 24 year-old amateur singer from Ra’anana, survived the Hamas massacre at the Nova music festival on October 7th, 2023. She played dead and hid under a pile of bodies in a roadside bomb shelter for hours, with shrapnel embedded in her leg, until she was ultimately rescued. …
A few hundred anti-Israel activists also held a protest on Wednesday in Basel, and a few dozen took part in a demonstration on Thursday. Basel police said they were investigating after a man was filmed making a throat-slitting gesture toward the Israeli delegation during Sunday’s opening ceremony, during which dozens of people turned out with large Palestinian flags.
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