Hundreds of people staged a silent march through Eurovision host city Basel on Wednesday, protesting against Israel’s participation in the TV musical extravaganza while ramping up its war in Gaza.
The demonstrators marched from the City Hall across the River Rhine but police stopped them from reaching the “Eurovision Village” fan zone.
Carrying around 30 Palestinian flags, they marched with a banner reading “Basel — Unite For Palestine” and “Boycott Genocide Song Contest”.
One woman held a placard reading “Gaza is being starved by Israel right now”. One man held a banner saying: “Thank you Nemo!”
The Swiss singer, who won last year’s Eurovision in Malmo, Sweden, has joined calls for Israel to be excluded from the world’s biggest live television music event.
Other placards read: “Human rights for everyone” and “We are thinking about the 50,000 dead children, mothers and fathers from Gaza”.
Lea Kobler, 31, from Zurich, said: “It is just horrendous. And Basel is giving a stage to Israel and no-one is saying anything. It has to stop.”
She carried a placard reading: “We are human and you watched, stayed silent.”
As Israel steps up its offensive in Gaza, which has claimed tens of thousands of lives, calls have mounted for it to be excluded from Eurovision.
Pro-Palestinian protests in Basel, however, are nowhere near the scale or intensity of those held last year in Malmo, when Israel’s competitor Eden Golan performed under tight security amid threats, and was largely confined to her hotel.
Yuval Raphael, Israel’s entrant this year, is among the favourites to qualify from Thursday’s semi-final.
Raphael survived the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that sparked the war in Gaza, hiding beneath dead bodies as Hamas gunmen attacked a music festival, killing hundreds.
Israel’s public broadcaster Kan said it had filed a police complaint after filming a protester apparently making a “throat-slitting gesture” at the country’s delegation during the Eurovision opening ceremony parade on Sunday. A number of flag-waving pro-Palestinian demonstrators were among the crowds.