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The Media Painted Israel’s Eurovision Entry as ‘Divisive’ — Viewers Made Her a Star
Yuval Raphael from Israel with the title “New Day Will Rise” on stage at the second semi-final of the 69th Eurovision Song Contest in the Arena St. Jakobshalle. Photo: Jens Büttner/dpa via Reuters Connect
If you were reading the media’s Eurovision coverage ahead of Saturday night’s live final, you could be forgiven for thinking Europe was on the brink of revolt — not over the music, but because Israel was allowed to compete.
For days, major outlets drip-fed a steady stream of articles focused less on the music and more on the “divisiveness” of Israel’s singer, Yuval Raphael. The contest was held in Basel, Switzerland — in keeping with tradition that the previous year’s winner hosts the following year’s event. But instead of coverage on costumes, staging, or song predictions, much of the press zeroed in on Israel.
Take the Associated Press, which on May 16 published a piece headlined: “Israel’s presence still roils Eurovision a year after major protests over the war in Gaza.” The article detailed a protest in Basel the night before the final — involving 200 people, “many draped in Palestinian flags,” demanding Israel’s expulsion from the competition.
That’s 200 people. In a city hosting an event watched by 160 million.
But beyond the AP’s decision to devote an entire article to a relatively small protest, it’s what the piece doesn’t say that stands out.
The article solemnly describes demonstrators marching “in silence down a street noisy with music and Eurovision revelry” — conferring a quiet dignity to the scene — while omitting that just days earlier, protesters in the same city were filmed shouting death threats and that one man was caught miming the slitting of Yuval Raphael’s throat.
The article also recites the protestors’ talking point: “Russia was banned after invading Ukraine, so why not Israel?” A responsible journalist might have added a key bit of context: Eurovision is a contest between broadcasters, and Russia’s state broadcaster was disqualified for breaching contest rules. Israel, by contrast, was attacked by Hamas on October 7, and its broadcaster KAN was not accused of doing anything wrong.
NBC News took an even more dramatic tone with its headline: “United by music, divided on Israel: Eurovision tensions bubble up in famously neutral Switzerland.” Readers were told that protests over Israel’s participation had reached a “fever pitch,” and that “Basel, and Europe at large, are anything but united.”
A fever pitch? For 200 people with flags — and little more than death threats for a 24-year-old woman?
The AFP joined the chorus with a headline on May 11: “Parade, protests kick off Eurovision Song Contest week.” But even that article opened with a contradictory statement: “The Swiss city is hosting the 69th edition of the world’s biggest annual live televized music event, reaching around 160 million viewers.”
In other words: massive global interest. And yet, we’re meant to believe the event was overshadowed by a protest that could barely fill a city square.
The UK media did its part too. On May 10, the BBC reported: “Israel heads to Eurovision final, despite protests” — a headline designed to suggest Raphael had narrowly slipped through under a cloud of outrage.
Meanwhile, The Independent vaguely claimed that “tensions” had erupted over Israel’s performance, without saying who was tense, or why.
The same publication even attempted to reframe one of the anti-Israel protestors who tried to storm the stage when Raphael was singing during the final as the victim, running a lead that defies belief:
Pro Palestine protester’s hair pulled as attempted Eurovision disruption blocked.
And The Guardian ran multiple pieces implying Israel’s participation was in jeopardy, after national broadcasters from Spain and Ireland requested a “discussion” over Israel’s inclusion.
Israel Triumphs in Public Vote
So after all the noise, what happened?
Israel came first in the audience vote.
Yuval Raphael placed second overall in the competition, with 357 points. Austria’s winner received 436 points. But here’s the key detail: Israel scored 297 points from the public, compared to just 60 from the jury. Austria, by contrast, received 178 from the public and 258 from juries.
In other words: if the public alone had decided, Israel would have won.
Israel earned the maximum 12 points in the public vote from the United Kingdom, Spain, Sweden, Australia, and Portugal — all of whose juries gave her zero. In Ireland, where the broadcaster led the charge to discuss Israel’s participation, the public gave Israel 10 points, and the jury gave 7.
For all the media’s insistence that Israel’s presence was unwelcome, millions of ordinary viewers voted otherwise.
And yet, even as the final aired, broadcasters continued to undermine Israel.
Spain’s RTVE ignored warnings from the European Broadcasting Union and allowed its presenters to recite unverifiable casualty figures: “The victims of the Israeli attacks in Gaza now exceed 50,000, including more than 15,000 children, according to the United Nations.” (The UN has issued no such definitive number.) Before the broadcast began, RTVE aired a message: “In the face of human rights, silence is not an option. Peace and justice for Palestine.”
Will Spain face disqualification next year for politicizing the contest on-air? Don’t hold your breath.
Even the BBC’s Graham Norton seemed to join the pattern of omission, describing Yuval Raphael as a newcomer who only began singing in 2023 after appearing on Israel’s Rising Star. He neglected to mention she is also a survivor of the October 7 massacre at the Nova music festival — where she hid under the bodies of others who were murdered.
Let’s be honest: much of the media wasn’t reporting on Eurovision — it was campaigning within it. The press wanted to make Israel’s participation look controversial. They wanted Yuval Raphael to lose. That, for them, would have been the ultimate verdict: a musical referendum on Israel.
But they failed.
The audience saw through it. The public voted. And Israel’s Yuval Raphael sang — and soared.
The author is a contributor to HonestReporting, a Jerusalem-based media watchdog with a focus on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias — where a version of this article first appeared.
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Israeli FM Urges Action as Anti-Israel Protesters Block Cruise Ship at Greek Island, Forcing Diversion to Cyprus
Pro-Palestinian protesters gather at the port of Syros, Greece, blocking an Israeli cruise ship from docking and disembarking. Photo: Screenshot
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar urged his Greek counterpart, Giorgos Gerapetritis, to take action after pro-Palestinian protesters prevented hundreds of Israeli passengers from disembarking a cruise ship near the island of Syros.
On Tuesday, approximately 1,600 Israeli passengers expecting a peaceful stop on their cruise were unable to disembark from a ship docked on the island of Syros — located in the central Aegean Sea — after large anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian protests erupted at the port, raising safety concerns.
In a statement, the Israeli Foreign Ministry reported that Saar “requested [Gerapetritis’] intervention in an effort to resolve the docking of the ship in Greece.”
Departing from Haifa in northern Israel on Sunday, the MS Crown Iris — owned by Israeli cruise line Mano Maritime and flying a Panamanian flag — stopped in Rhodes, a Greek island in the southeastern Aegean, and was scheduled to dock in Syros.
Amid the large anti-Israel protest, the cruise company chose to divert the ship to Limassol, Cyprus, rather than attempt to disembark at Syros, according to Hebrew media reports.
Όπως ήρθε-έφυγε από τη #Σύρο το κρουαζιερόπλοιο Crown Iris που μετέφερε Ισραηλινούς τουρίστες αφού κάτοικοι & φορείς που αντιδρούν στη γενοκτονία στην #παλαιστινη βρέθηκαν στο λιμάνι παρεμποδίζοντας την αποβίβασή τους! #antireport #FreePalestine #Συρος pic.twitter.com/ssqg9WzkAm
— Μένουμε Ενεργοί – Ενημέρωση, Αγώνας, Αλληλεγγύη (@menoume_energoi) July 22, 2025
Around 300 protesters gathered at the dock to protest against the war in Gaza, while Syros Port Authority police guarded the area and intervened to prevent violence until the ship departed.
In videos circulating on social media, protesters are seen waving Palestinian flags and holding banners with slogans such as “Stop the Genocide” and “No AC [Air Conditioning] in Hell,” while chanting antisemitic slogans.
Other footage captures Israeli passengers responding by waving Israeli flags and chanting “Am Yisrael Chai,” which means “The people of Israel live.”
Hundreds of Israelis aboard a Mano Maritime cruise ship were stranded at the port of Syros, Greece, after pro-Palestinian protesters blocked them from disembarking pic.twitter.com/npWwMDLPbW
— Amichai Stein (@AmichaiStein1) July 22, 2025
Since the Hamas-led invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, antisemitic incidents have surged to alarming levels across Europe. This recent incident appears to be just one of the latest in a wave of anti-Jewish hate crimes that Greece and other countries have witnessed in recent months.
Last week in Athens, a group of pro-Palestinian activists vandalized an Israeli restaurant, shouting antisemitic slurs and spray-painting graffiti with slogans such as “No Zionist is safe here.”
The attackers also posted a sign on one of the restaurant’s windows that read, “All IDF soldiers are war criminals — we don’t want you here,” referring to the Israel Defense Forces.
Last month, an Israeli tourist was attacked by a group of pro-Palestinian activists after they overheard him using Google Maps in Hebrew while navigating through Athens.
When the attackers realized the victim was speaking Hebrew, they began physically assaulting him while shouting antisemitic slurs.
Although local police arrived promptly, a large crowd had already gathered outside the restaurant where the victim had sought shelter.
At first, authorities mistakenly arrested the victim, accusing him of the attack. However, after video footage clarified the situation, they apologized and took him to the nearest hospital.
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Netanyahu Brushes Off Arrest Threats From Mamdani: ‘There’s Enough Craziness in the World’
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a joint press conference with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the Prime Minister’s office in Jerusalem, Feb. 16, 2025. Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg/Pool via REUTERS
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu downplayed threats made by New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani to arrest him if he visits the city, calling the pledge “silly” during a Monday appearance on the “Full Send” podcast.
Speaking to host Aaron “Steiny” Steinberg, Netanyahu was asked about Mamdani’s repeated vow to enforce the International Criminal Court’s 2024 arrest warrant against him, related to alleged war crimes during Israel’s military operations against the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in Gaza.
“I’m not concerned,” Netanyahu said. “There’s enough craziness in the world, but I guess it never ends … It’s silly in many ways.”
In November, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu, his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and now-deceased Hamas terrorist leader Ibrahim al-Masri (better known as Mohammed Deif) for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza war.
The ICC said there were reasonable grounds to believe Netanyahu and Gallant were criminally responsible for starvation in Gaza and the persecution of Palestinians — charges vehemently denied by Israel, which has provided significant humanitarian aid into the enclave throughout much of the war.
Israel also says it has gone to unprecedented lengths to try and avoid civilian casualties, despite Hamas’s widely acknowledged military strategy of embedding its terrorists within Gaza’s civilian population and commandeering civilian facilities like hospitals, schools, and mosques to run operations and direct attacks.
Mamdani, a democratic socialist and state assemblyman from Queens, surged to national attention in June after defeating former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic mayoral primary, becoming the party’s nominee heading into November’s general election. He ran on a platform of aligning city policy with international law, promising that New York City would enforce ICC warrants, even if that meant arresting a visiting foreign leader.
Mamdani defended his vow to arrest Netanyahu if he visits New York during an event at the B’nai Jeshurun synagogue in Manhattan last month, comparing the Israeli premier to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“My answer is the same whether we are speaking about Vladimir Putin or Netanyahu. I think that this should be a city that is in compliance with international law,” Mamdani said. “And we have seen, other countries across the world that are signatories of the ICC that they would honor that same request, being Canada or other countries in Europe, and their honoring of it meant that Netanyahu did not travel there.”
Mamdani acknowledged that the United States is not a party to the Rome Statute, which established the ICC, but argued that “there are times where courage is required,” comparing his desire to arrest Netanyahu to California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s decision to defy federal law and issue marriage certificates to same-sex couples as mayor of San Francisco.
“What I am trying to showcase is a belief that international law is something that should be honored, should be respected, and something that we should actually bring our city into compliance with,” Mamdani said.
Netanyahu on Monday expressed disappointment in Mamdani’s victory but claimed that residents of the Big Apple will eventually become disillusioned with the progressive firebrand after confronting the “reality” of his far-left agenda.
“A lot of people have been taken in by this nonsense. You want to defund the police? You want to have people go into stores and rob them and be free, you think that creates a good society?” Netanyahu said.
Netanyahu reaffirmed on the podcast that he still plans to visit New York City in the future and suggested he might travel with US President Donald Trump. The remarks echoed a statement Netanyahu made earlier this month, when he similarly downplayed Mamdani’s comments to arrest him while meeting with US officials in Washington, DC.
During the White House meeting, Trump dismissed Mamdani’s threats and labeled him a “communist.” Trump also added, “I’ll get him out,” referring to Netanyahu if the two leaders visit New York City together. Trump has also reportedly discussed the possibility of cutting federal funding to cities that attempt to act on ICC warrants without coordination with the US government.
Steinberg referred to Mamdani as an “antisemite” during Monday’s interview.
A little-known politician before this year’s mayoral primary campaign, Mamdani is an outspoken supporter of the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement, which seeks to isolate Israel from the international community as a step toward its eventual elimination.
Mamdani has also repeatedly refused to recognize Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state, falsely suggesting the country does not offer “equal rights” for all its citizens.
Most recently, Mamdani defended the phrase “globalize the intifada”— which references previous periods of sustained Palestinian terrorism against Jews and Israels and has been widely interpreted as a call to expand political violence — by invoking the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising during World War II. He later clarified that he would discourage its use while continuing to back the broader anti-Israel movement it represents.
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Syrian Committee Reports 1,426 Killed in March Violence, Says Commanders Did Not Order It
Alawite Syrians, who fled the violence in western Syria, walk in Nahr El Kabir River, after the reported mass killings of Alawite minority members, in Akkar, Lebanon March 11, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
A Syrian fact-finding committee said on Tuesday that 1,426 people had died in March in attacks on security forces and subsequent mass killings of Alawites, but concluded that commanders had not given orders for the revenge attacks.
The incidents in the coastal region were the worst violence to hit Syria since the downfall of President Bashar al-Assad last year. The fact-finding committee‘s work is seen as an important test of the new leadership, made up mainly of former anti-Assad rebel fighters, who are facing new unrest this month involving other minority groups in the southwest.
The committee concluded that Syrian commanders did not give orders to commit violations and in fact gave orders to halt them.
It came up with a list of 298 suspects involved in violations against Alawites and 265 involved in the initial attack on security forces, committee head Jumaa Al-Anzi said.
The names are not being released publicly for now and have been referred to courts for further investigations, spokesperson Yasser Farhan said. He added that 31 people who committed violations against civilians had been arrested, as well as six people he referred to as “remnants” of the former regime.
A Reuters investigation last month identified 1,479 Syrian Alawites killed and dozens who were missing from 40 distinct sites of revenge killings, and found a chain of command leading from the attackers directly to men who serve alongside Syria’s new leaders in Damascus.
Syria’s new leadership, which has roots in the insurgency led by Sunni Muslim Islamist groups against Assad, a member of the Alawite minority sect, has long sought to reassure minorities that they will be safe.
Safety of minorities has become a major issue again this month with hundreds of people killed in clashes between government security forces, Sunni Bedouin fighters and militants from the Druze sect in the southern province of Sweida. The authorities have set up a new fact-finding committee in response.
‘WIDESPREAD BUT NOT ORGANIZED’
The violence in March began on March 6 with attacks on Syrian security forces stationed in the region. It put hospitals and other state institutions out of operation and caused wide areas to fall out of government control, Farhan said.
The committee found that 238 members of the security forces were killed in these attacks, perpetrated by forces aligned with the former Assad government, Farhan said.
In response, around 200,000 armed men mobilized from across Syria, pouring into the coastal region, he said.
This led to violations including killings, theft, and sectarian incitement that the committee found were “widespread but not organized,” Farhan said.
Farhan said the committee members had full cooperation from government forces as they undertook their months of work, and it was now up to President Ahmed al-Sharaa whether to release their report in full.
Diana Semaan, Syria researcher at Amnesty International, called for the full findings to be released and for perpetrators to face prosecution.
“In terms of the fact-finding committee, acknowledging that atrocities against Alawite civilians happened is an important step towards justice,” she told Reuters.
“[But] without the proper prosecution of perpetrators, then we have impunity. It won’t be the justice and accountability that the victims deserve.”
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