The brief clashes opposed on Saturday, May 17 at the end of the day, Pro-Palestinian protesters and the Police in Basel, where the Eurovision 2025 final was held. This agitation took place shortly before the performance of Yuval Raphael, the Israeli candidate.
Several hundred protesters had gathered in the Swiss city to denounce Israel’s participation in song competition, amid the Israeli offensive in Gaza. According to the Swiss Agency ATS Keystone, they did not take into account the route proposed by the Police that explained that they could not cross the center of the city.
Police used a pimitor but did not need to repel the protesters to the water canyon that is reinforced, AFP said.
Burned flags
With many Palestinian flags, the protesters were grouped behind a large horizontal flag in which it was written: “United for Palestine” (“United for Palestine”), as well as a word game with Eurovision: “release their vision” (“releases its vision”), with a heart instead of the letter v. They burned an Israeli flag and an American flag. In a sign, you could read “Singing while Gaza burns” (“Sing While Gaza Burns”). Green smoke bombs have also broken.
Israel’s participation has aroused criticism and protests during Eurovision’s week, but little has been mobilized this week in Basel, despite the intensification of the war fought by Israel in Gaza, which has already caused tens of thousands of deaths. A contrast with very important manifestations during the last edition in 2024 in Malmö, Sweden.
Some 200 protesters organized a silent march on Wednesday through the Eurovision Swiss host city.
Whistles during the final
The performance of the Israeli singer and survivor of October 7, Yuval Raphael, was whistled during the final, said an AFP photographer. It was also interrupted during a dress essay on Thursday by “six people, including a family” that stirred “large flags and whistles,” said the Swiss transmission and television company (SSR).
The interior incident was the second since the beginning of the Eurovision directed against the Israeli singer, after a slaughter gesture led by a protester during the presentation of the delegations on May 11.
The 24 -year -old interpreted The new day will rise (A new day will rise). The one who survived just because he left the dead under a pile of corpses during the massacre perpetrated by Hamas wants to launch a universal message “of hope and solidarity.”
In Geneva, more than 2,500 people paraded on Saturday in the city center to denounce the “genocidal machine of the Israeli government,” said Swiss agency Keystone-Ats.
Source: BFM TV
