The build-up to Eurovision 2025 has been met with protests in its host city—all while Basel tries to make the case that “everyone is welcome.” Not everyone apparently: amid Palestinian flags, a man made a throat-slitting gesture and spat at the Israeli delegation, prompting an official complaint from the Middle Eastern European Broadcast Union member Kan.
The target of this protest is Yuval Raphael, the 24-year-old Israeli performing the song ‘New Day Will Rise’ in the second semi final on Thursday, May 12th. She is also a survivor of the October 7th, 2023 Hamas pogrom at the Nova music festival.
Death threats at the event’s ‘turquoise carpet’ opening are not the sole challenge facing the organisers. Against the backdrop of a boycott campaign against Israel—and the near-permanent exclusion of Russia since its invasion of Ukraine—Basel police also expect cyberattacks on the city’s infrastructure. (Recent research shows that organisations’ growing use of artificial intelligence and cloud computing/cloud storage is creating new opportunities for such hostile activities.)
In addition to bolstering online resilience, some 1,300 Swiss police officers will be on duty, backed by the Swiss Armed Forces, federal police and law enforcement drawn from neighbours France and Germany. Such expensive deployments will likely further antagonise the third of Basel residents who voted against hosting Eurovision last year.
