Israel’s Yuval Raphael walked the “turquoise carpet” event in front of a crowd of protesters on Sunday, as the opening ceremony parade officially kicked off the Eurovision Song Contest week in Basel, Switzerland.
Palestinian flags were seen flying in the crowd and along the procession route, the most visible flag waved by spectators.
As she came out of the city hall, Raphael waved and blew kisses to the crowd and posed for photographs, waving the Israeli flag. One person held up a sign reading: “No applause for genocide.” Another read: “Singing while Gaza burns.”
A smattering of boos were also heard as Raphael stepped onto the carpet, and a man was filmed threatening Raphael and the Israeli delegation, leading Israel’s Kan public broadcaster to file complaint with Swiss police.
In the video, filmed by a member of the Israeli delegation, the man, waving a Palestinian flag and wearing a keffiyeh, was seen making a throat-slitting gesture and spitting toward the Israeli procession during the “turquoise carpet” event.
In a statement, Kan said it also sent a message to the European Broadcasting Union asking for help in identifying the man. Asked to comment, the EBU said it was a matter for Swiss police.
Last year, Israel’s contestant Eden Golan skipped the turquoise carpet event due to security concerns, as well as its overlap with Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Raphael, a survivor of the October 7, 2023, Hamas massacre at the Nova music festival, will perform in the second semifinal on Thursday evening, hoping for a spot in Saturday’s grand final.
The 24-year-old Israeli singer said she hopes her song “New Day Will Rise” will send a message of healing and solidarity.
She told The Times of Israel ahead of her departure for Basel that she is focused on the music and not the “background noise.”
“There are things that I can control and things that I can’t control. Ultimately, there’s no point investing energy in something I can’t control,” she said. “The most important thing to me is to bring honor to my country and do the best I can.”
Ahead of the event, experts said they did not expect protests on the same level as last year, in part because the European Broadcasting Union, which organizes the competition, has systematically and repeatedly rejected all appeals to have Israel barred. Public anti-Israel sentiments in Switzerland are also not believed to be as high as those in Sweden.
Still, last week, Israel’s National Security Council released a travel advisory for Israelis traveling to Basel for the annual song contest, warning Israelis to avoid demonstrations and refrain from displaying Jewish or Israeli symbols.
Eurovision celebrates kitsch, and plenty of dazzling outfits were on show as the 37 competing countries’ entrants took their place in the parade.
Switzerland hosted the inaugural Eurovision Song Contest in 1956, then staged it for a second time in 1989.
Basel is located right on the border with France and Germany.
“The moment we have eagerly awaited is finally here. The stage is ready. Excitement fills the air, and the entire city is buzzing with a unique and vibrant energy,” said Conradin Cramer, president of the Basel City canton.
“The ESC is the most groundbreaking Swiss invention, after the pocket knife, the zipper, and bircher muesli.”
“Basel, located in the heart of Europe, is the perfect place to unite people by music,” he said, before declaring Eurovision 2025 officially open.
Vintage trams and buses took the performers along the so-called “turquoise carpet” parade route — the longest in Eurovision history at 1.3 kilometers (0.8 miles).
Eurovision fans lined the route, joining in the party atmosphere in the hot sunshine.
The parade was accompanied by drummers, carnival groups, marching bands, alphorn players and techno acts as they crossed the River Rhine over the Mittlere bridge, ending up at the “Eurovision Village” fan zone.
Switzerland is hosting after Swiss vocalist Nemo won Eurovision 2024 in Malmo with the highly personal song “The Code,” about non-binary gender identity.
Nemo has joined calls for Israel to be thrown out of the show.
“I support the call for Israel’s exclusion from the Eurovision Song Contest,” the singer told the Huffington Post news website. “Israel’s actions are fundamentally at odds with the values that Eurovision claims to uphold — peace, unity, and respect for human rights.”
Dozens of former participants also joined calls for Israel to be banned from the event, penning a letter published last week demanding that the EBU suspend Israel’s participation, which the broadcasting union rejected.
“Last year, we were appalled that the EBU allowed Israel to participate while it continued its genocide in Gaza,” the letter read, calling the 2024 contest “the most politicized, chaotic and unpleasant in the competition’s history.”
The signatories to the letter accused Kan, Israel’s public broadcaster and an EBU member, of being “complicit in Israel’s genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza and the decades-long regime of apartheid and military occupation against the entire Palestinian people.”
In a statement to The Times of Israel, Martin Green, the director of the competition, said that while the EBU understands “the concerns and deeply held views,” its goal is to maintain “a universal event that promotes connections, diversity and inclusion through music.”
For decades, Eurovision has positioned itself as a non-political contest, but geopolitics has undeniably filtered into the proceedings most years. This year, public broadcasters from Slovenia, Spain, Iceland and Ireland have called on the EBU to reconsider Israel’s participation, to no avail.
Despite animosity on the ground, in last year’s competition Israel came second in the popular vote, with voters in 14 different countries giving it the most possible points — twelve. It was far less successful in the jury votes, and ended up fifth in total.