EUROVISION SONG CONTEST 2025: Israeli contestant who is a survivor of the October 7th Hamas massacre, is booed and threatened with throat-cutting gestures by pro-Hamas agitators

Cameras caught an anti-Israel protester at Sunday’s Eurovision opening event in Switzerland, the “turquoise carpet,” making a throat-slitting gesture and spitting in the direction of the Israeli delegation to the competition.

Breitbart (h/t Nita) Though Israel was was the victim on October 7,  radical leftists and pro-Hamas protesters, including hundreds of artists and Israeli rivals at the contest, demanded unsuccessfully that the controlling European Broadcast Union (EBU) oust Israel.

Eurovision’s “turquoise carpet” is essentially a red carpet parade to welcome contestants to the festival. This year, the titular carpet was located in Basel, Switzerland, the homeland of last year’s winner, and was surrounded by a mob of angry anti-Israel protesters, who booed Raphael and her delegation.

One protester at the scene wearing a keffiyeh, was caught on camera making a slashing gesture with his finger across his throat, an apparent threat to the Israeli team. Hamas terrorists beheaded many of their civilian victims on October 7, according to Israeli law enforcement and forensics teams who shared their findings following the massacre with journalists.

Israel’s representative at the contest this year is singer Yuval Raphael, who was present and survived the Hamas attack on the Nova music festival on October 7, singing the song “New Day Will Rise.” The Nova festival was the site of some of the most gruesome atrocities committed by Hamas on that day, including extensive documented rape and sexual violence. Raphael’s song focuses on a message of overcoming hardship and sharing in the pain of grief to press forward toward the future.

Raphael’s presence on the turquoise carpet was notable as her predecessor Eden Golan, who represented Israel at Eurovision in 2024, did not attend the event in response to a barrage of threats from anti-Israel and antisemitic “protesters.”

Raphael made her appearance on the turquoise carpet to the sound of her song and waved the Israeli flag. She at one point appears to wave her flag in the apparent direction of protesters carrying a sea of Palestinian flags and what appeared to be one lone rainbow flag representing the gay community, which Hamas actively persecutes.