Eurovision is the huge European music competition: somewhat like American Idol back in the day, only vastly bigger. Each country has a single entry, and people all over Europe, and beyond, vote on the winner, along with an expert panel.
In recent years, Eurovision has been a focus of anti-Semitism. Each year, there are calls from activists to ban Israel from the event. Israeli performances are routinely demonstrated against, or worse. And yet, the Israeli entries have done well.
This year, Israel was represented by Yuval Raphael. This is Raphael performing her song, “New Day Will Rise.”
It was a fine performance, but of course she couldn’t be left in peace:
A British man and woman have been arrested for trying to storm the stage during Israel’s Eurovision performance in Switzerland on Saturday.
Video shows a man yelling “Free Palestine” during Yuval Raphael’s performance in St Jakobshalle Arena, in Basel, before he and a woman try to breach the security barrier. They were allegedly stopped by security guards before they could reach the stage.
Allegedly.
Around 200 protesters mounted a demonstration in Basel on Saturday evening, while two protesters attempted to get on to the stage during Raphael’s performance but were halted by security officials.
Despite the controversy, which is old hat by now, Raphael finished second in the competition. What is interesting is that she ran away with the European popular vote. It was lower scores from the “experts” that put her in second place–still, a great showing. This is a sign of the times. Anti-Semitism is now an elite phenomenon. You won’t find it at the local watering hole or the local vo-tech. To find anti-Semitism, you look to elite institutions like Harvard, Penn, NYU, Columbia and the United Nations.
There is a back story to Yuval Raphael’s success, too. She was at the Nova Music festival on October 7, 2023. I am not sure whether she was there as a performer or a member of the audience. But she survived, as Gazan terrorists carried out their massacre, by playing dead, hiding under actual dead bodies in a bomb shelter for eight hours. And now, supporters of the people who tried to murder Raphael have tried to prevent her from singing.
That is Yuval Raphael’s story, but she kept it to herself during the Eurovision competition:
She spoke about her experience at the UN Human Rights Council, but refrained from talking about it ahead of the song contest in interviews with international media, fearing it would violate the strict guidelines put in place by Eurovision on anything deemed political.
We wouldn’t want to get political.
