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Israeli singer says he is tuning out ‘stop the genocide’ chants as he heads into Eurovision final
(JTA) — As alternative Eurovision events gathered momentum across Europe in protest of Israel’s participation in the famously schmaltzy singing contest, Israeli candidate Noam Bettan, fresh off the semifinals in Vienna, said he chose to look past chants of “stop the genocide” that marred his performance and focus instead on the “huge wave of love and support,” including from non-Israelis in the crowd and online.
Bettan performed “Michelle” at the Wiener Stadthalle on Tuesday amid audible heckling from protesters, prompting security to remove four people from the arena. Bettan said he registered the noise but quickly turned his attention to the crowd’s support.
“There was booing at the beginning, but a second passed and immediately I felt a huge wave of love and support,” he told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in a Zoom interview on Wednesday. “It carried me, you know, on stage.”
Alongside the Israelis cheering him on was a sizable group of spectators Bettan said were not Israeli, judging by their faces and by the flags of other countries some were waving. “I felt a lot of love from them and I chose to see this side of this story,” he said.
The European Broadcasting Union, the alliance of public broadcasters that runs Eurovision, allowed Israel to remain in the contest — Europe’s largest live television event — despite months of pressure to bar it over the Gaza war. The decision led to the contest’s biggest boycott yet, with five countries, with Spain, Ireland, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Iceland withdrawing from participation. Nemo, the Swiss singer who won Eurovision in 2024, returned their trophy to the EBU in protest.
The backlash has also produced parallel programming across Europe, including alternative Eurovision events in several countries, including those not officially boycotting the contest, among them Italy, Austria and Germany. The controversy also spilled into Eurovision’s fan spaces, where Israel was initially left out of an official cafe initiative showcasing competing countries through food and music before a local cafe stepped in with falafel and bagels with lox, and, according to AP, security detail outside.
Critics of Israel’s inclusion have accused the EBU of hypocrisy for expelling Russia after its 2022 invasion of Ukraine while allowing Israel to remain. Amnesty International secretary general Agnès Callamard called the decision an “act of cowardice” that serves to “deflect attention from and normalize [Israel’s] ongoing genocide.”
Israel’s President Isaac Herzog said EBU’s decision demonstrated “solidarity, fellowship, and cooperation,” and that the country “deserves to be represented on every stage around the world.”
As was the case in the last two years, pro-Palestinian marches took place outside the venue, with more planned for Saturday’s final, which Israel advanced to alongside nine other qualifying countries.
Barred under EBU rules from commenting directly on the politics around Israel’s participation, Bettan spoke instead about the “crazy” amount of support online, including from people outside Israel and beyond Jewish audiences.
“I get a lot of messages from people all over the world, supporting me personally. I’m honored that I have the privilege to touch other hearts and that’s my main goal here,” he said.
Bettan said he received advice from Israel’s last three Eurovision contestants, Yuval Raphael, Eden Golan and Noa Kirel, who all told him to “make this experience the most memorable possible.”
Raphael, a survivor of the Nova music festival massacre, won the public vote last year but finished second once Eurovision’s national jury scores were added to the audience tally, making her result another flashpoint in the debate over Israel’s place in the contest. The EBU changed this year’s voting rules, reducing the number of votes each viewer can cast from 20 to 10 and adding new limits on promotional campaigns by participating broadcasters.
The New York Times drew on last year’s voting controversy, arguing that Israel had turned Eurovision into a soft-power platform. In an article whose original online headline said Israel had “co-opted” Eurovision before it was later changed, the Times reported that Israel had spent more than $1 million over several years on campaigns that included social media ads urging people to use all their votes to influence the results.
But critics of the charge say it is not only selective — the Times itself noted that other countries have also mobilized diaspora communities to vote — but treats as scandalous what Eurovision was built to do: allow countries to sell a version of themselves through music and national branding.
“When the Times accuses Israel of using Eurovision as a soft-power tool, it is accusing Israel of participating in Eurovision,” Hen Mazzig, a writer and pro-Israel activist, wrote on Substack.
The EBU sent Israel a formal warning over the weekend for sharing promotional videos featuring Bettan in several languages urging viewers to give Israel the maximum 10 votes, saying it was “not in line with our rules nor the spirit of the competition.”
The polyglot from Ra’anana, who was born in Israel to parents from Fance, explained the decision to perform “Michelle” in Hebrew, French and English.
“Half my heart beats in Hebrew and the other half beats in French,” he said. “English gives another color, rhythm and energy. It’s also more international. I can touch more people.”
Bettan, who bookmakers have predicted will come in sixth place, shrugged off concerns about being beaten by rivals in Saturday’s final, saying the atmosphere backstage had been warm throughout and that the other singers were “really, really nice.”
“I’m not worried at all. I’m just really happy to be here,” he said. “I don’t feel like I’m in a competition. I feel like we are in the same experience all together.”
But for all the camaraderie and support from around the world, Bettan said he always kept in mind that he was “singing to my people back home.”
“I know it sounds like a cliche, but it gives me so much strength,” he said.
This article originally appeared on JTA.org.
The post Israeli singer says he is tuning out ‘stop the genocide’ chants as he heads into Eurovision final appeared first on The Forward.
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PEN America president, defending Israel’s critics, resigns after report warns of threats to Jewish authors
(JTA) — The president of PEN America resigned over the weekend in protest of a report on boycotts targeting Jewish and Israeli authors, part of yet another round of internal division over Israel at the literary free-speech institution.
Dinaw Mengestu, an Ethiopian-American novelist and Bard College professor, told The Atlantic he was stepping down because he believed the PEN report, “A Silent Moratorium,” failed to defend the free-speech rights of participants in the movement to boycott Israel.
“It’s the First Amendment that allows all of us to engage in boycotts, not PEN America,” Mengestu told the publication. “PEN America as a free expression organization is supposed to defend that right.”
The author did not respond to multiple Jewish Telegraphic Agency requests for comment, but in an Instagram post Monday alluded to an interest in creating a new organization to rival the prominent nonprofit, which defends the free expression rights other writers.
In response to an interview request, PEN sent a statement to JTA saying it was “grateful” for Mengestu’s leadership and would “respect” his decision. The statement also alluded to PEN’s own past turmoil: “We tell hard stories, in politically challenging moments, about writers from a range of perspectives, even when it’s uncomfortable for us given our own recent history.”
In its report, published on its blog, PEN described “Jewish and Israeli writers who feel that the mainstream literary world is increasingly shutting them out because of their identity, nationality, or views.” Interview subjects include several Israel critics, as well as literary agents who assert that they face more difficulties signing Jewish authors after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel and amid the subsequent war in Gaza. The report also repeatedly cited a JTA report about a 2024 viral list of “Zionist” authors to boycott.
Among other details, PEN’s report revealed that Israeli novelist Etgar Keret and public radio host Ira Glass had cancelled a planned live event in Australia over fears of threats and protest.
“This silencing and exclusion of writers is a threat to what PEN America is fundamentally committed to defending: a culture of free expression for all,” according to the report.
In addition to the report, PEN also altered its institutional policy toward cultural boycotts, which the organization has long opposed. Although its report on Jewish authors asserted that boycotts “threaten the free expression rights” of their targets, the revised guidelines say that the group will also defend the right of writers to participate in boycotts.
Mengestu’s resignation comes at a perilous moment for Jews facing cultural boycotts, both within the standard-bearers of PEN and elsewhere. PEN’s Jewish former longtime CEO stepped down in 2024 following months of blowback from rank-and-file authors who felt the organization was insufficiently critical of Israel and caused PEN to cancel a festival for global authors.
Since the leadership change, PEN leadership has published and retracted a condemnation of a boycott effort trained at an Israeli comedian and also published a report cataloguing Israel’s “cultural destruction in Gaza.”
Mengestu had assumed the role of board president in 2025. But PEN’s report about Jewish and Israeli writers on Thursday, he wrote, “makes clear that [change] will not happen.”
The Anti-Defamation League said it was “deeply troubled” by Mengestu’s resignation Monday. “Freedom of expression means opposing efforts to boycott, silence, or exclude writers because of their identity or nationality,” the organization tweeted, saying that the author’s decision to leave PEN over his objections to the report on Jewish authors “sends a chilling message.” Jewish authors also objected.
“Imagine running a free expression org and resigning because it refuses to blacklist authors based on their nationality,” the author David Zweig wrote on X, musing whether Mengestu would object to boycotting authors from his birth country: “Ethiopia doesn’t exactly have a good human rights record.”
In response to The Atlantic’s story that quoted sources from inside PEN who were critical of his resignation, Mengestu wrote a lengthy Instagram post Monday in which he stated, “This piece is about trying to suppress constitutionally protected speech,” criticized past PEN reports critical of the BDS movement, and added, “What PEN America fails to understand is that boycott is a form of dialogue.”
He announced his intention to “help make something better,” receiving affirmative comments from notable authors including Viet Thanh Nguyen, Angela Flournoy, Jewish pro-Palestinian novelist Jess Row and Pulitzer Prize-winner Benjamin Moser, author of a forthcoming history of Jewish anti-Zionism.
Other Jewish authors on the left were among those defending Mengestu’s decision to step down.
“Dinaw is one hundred percent correct that this kind of fake victim propaganda can be used to support anti-Boycott legislation which violates the First Amendment and is everywhere as popular support for Palestinians grows,” author Sarah Schulman wrote on Facebook. Calling PEN’s blog about Jews “one of those fake anti-semitism pieces,” Schulman added, “If PEN wants to survive, they have to get out of the Israel/Zionism business.”
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Church of England backs study of Palestinian Christian document accusing Israel of genocide
(JTA) — The Church of England’s legislative body voted Monday to encourage churches across England to engage with a document produced by Palestinian Christians that accuses Israel of genocide despite requests from Jewish organizations and Britain’s chief rabbi to reject it.
The document is titled “Moment of Truth: Faith in a Time of Genocide” and is also known as Kairos II, after the Palestinian Christian movement Kairos Palestine that produced it. It describes Israel’s military campaign in Gaza as a genocide, states that Israel is a “colonial enterprise built on racism,” and says decades of “occupation,” “apartheid” and “settler colonialism” are at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The vote on Monday does not adopt the accusations as church doctrine but says the church should hear the documents as “heartfelt expressions of the lived experience of Palestinian Christians,” and to engage with them in order to better understand the conflict.
Ahead of the debate in York, several Jewish organizations expressed concerns, and Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis asked Synod members to reject the amendment. Mirvis called Kairos II “deeply concerning” and that it “risks undermining decades of careful relationship-building” between Christians and Jews.
“It is truly shocking that a document which purports to speak in the name of truth contains so much falsehood,” he said.
Afterwards, the president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, Phil Rosenberg, issued a statement calling the passage of the motion “highly problematic.”
“Kairos Palestine may come from a place of genuine pain, but the falsehoods and distortions of Kairos II, including its erasure of Jewish identity and experience, is a prescription for more division and not the answer to conflict in the Middle East,” he said.
“This document reflects the pain and trauma of the Palestinian people. As a pastor, I hear the cry of our Palestinian Christian sisters and brothers — a cry that rises from the ruins of Gaza, and from the violence and oppression of the West Bank,” she said.
She added, ”I also hear the concerns of the chief rabbi, the co-leads of the Movement for Progressive Judaism, and the Board of Deputies, and I thank them for their honesty.” She said the church remained opposed to antisemitism and committed to safety for Israelis as well as Palestinians.
The Synod debate followed Mullally’s visit to the West Bank in June, where she met Palestinian Christian communities in Birzeit. During the visit she said, “I will use my role as Archbishop to seek the peace you desire and the freedom you deserve.”
The debate marks the ascendance of Israel-related issues in another major church, after the Catholic Church’s Pope Leo XIV angered Jewish groups soon after being elected last year by endorsing an investigation into whether Israel committed genocide in Gaza.
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Mike Pence denounces alleged arson of Israeli flag in his Indiana hometown
(JTA) — Former Vice President Mike Pence has weighed in against antisemitism after officials in his Indiana town say a costly fire may have been caused by arson to an Israeli flag displayed on a local barn.
The alleged arson broke out early Friday morning, damaging a historic home in Zionsville, Indiana, where Pence lives, and causing an estimated $150,000 in damages, according to the Zionsville Police Department.
Zionsville Mayor John Stehr said during a press conference on Friday that officials believed the fire began when an individual set fire to an Israeli flag that had been displayed outside the building alongside an American flag. The town later announced that the FBI had joined the investigation and that officials were examining whether the arson “may have been motivated by bias” but said no determination had been made.
“Absolutely despicable,” Pence tweeted on Sunday. “There can be no tolerance in America for Antisemitism or political acts of violence, and it is heartbreaking to see in our adopted hometown of Zionsville, Indiana. We thank God no one was hurt and urge anyone with information to contact law enforcement.”
Pence has long cast himself as a staunch supporter of Israel, including after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel, and has also repeatedly spoken out against antisemitism in the conservative movement and beyond.
Republican Indiana Sen. Jim Banks also condemned the alleged arson in a post on X Saturday. “Antisemitism will not be tolerated. Not in Zionsville. Not in Indiana. Not anywhere,” Banks wrote. “Thank you to the federal, state, and local officials working to bring the perpetrators of this despicable arson attack to justice.”
On Sunday, the Jewish community in central Indiana hosted a rally condemning the alleged arson attack, chanting, “We will stand up,” according to local outlet Fox 59. While Zionsville does not have a large Jewish community of its own, other suburbs of Indianapolis have significant Jewish populations, and Zionsville is also the longtime home of a Reform movement summer camp, the Goldman Union Camp Institute, which is in session now.
“The founding fathers founded a country where we have the ability to resolve differences among each other; we don’t do it by firebombing homes,” rally organizer David Schiller told Fox 59. “It’s inexcusable and unacceptable.”
The Zionsville Police Department did not respond to an inquiry from the Jewish Telegraphic Agency about the status of the investigation on Monday.
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