Harassment at the Eurovision Song Contest
Israel’s participation in the Eurovision Song Contest has been criticised for several years, particularly since the terrorist attack of 7 October 2023.
In 2024, 20-year-old Eden Golan represented Israel with the song Hurricane. Apart from Malmö Arena, Golan saw nothing of the city beyond her hotel room, as numerous threats had been made against the Israeli delegation and the city was filled with pro-Palestinian demonstrations. Swedish police had to call in reinforcements from Denmark and Norway. During the dress rehearsal before the semi-final, members of the audience booed Eden Golan, while two other contestants violated the ban on political statements during the show. At the subsequent press conference, a Polish journalist asked Golan how she felt about the fact that her participation in the contest was “putting everyone in danger”. A representative of the European Broadcasting Union immediately intervened to say that she did not have to answer, whereupon the Dutch singer Joost Klein, who made no secret of his contempt for Israel, interjected: “Why not?”
Two years later, Eden Golan described her experience in Malmö: “I’m always afraid. I scan my surroundings like a security guard. Ever since Eurovision, I’ve had this recurring fear: I walk into a place, a restaurant or a show, and someone shoots me from behind. I have recurring nightmares about people chasing me and killing me. But I’ve learned to live with it. No one will ever silence me again.”
In 2025, Israel’s entry, New Day Will Rise, was performed by Yuval Raphael, who had survived the attack on the Nova music festival on 7 October 2023 by hiding beneath dead bodies for eight hours. She dedicated her performance to the survivors of the music festival.
During the dress rehearsal before the semi-final, there was booing and whistling from the audience, while large Palestinian flags were waved. On the day of the final, pro-Palestinian demonstrations and unrest took place in the host city, Basel. Protesters clashed with police, who used tear gas. Israel’s National Security Council advised Israelis in Basel to keep a low profile. When Raphael performed that evening, two audience members attempted to break through the barriers and reach the stage, intending to throw paint at her, but they were stopped. Raphael was shaken and distressed by the incident.
In 2026, five countries chose to boycott Eurovision: Spain, the Netherlands, Ireland, Iceland and Slovenia. The Israeli broadcaster Kan described this as a “cultural boycott” that “harms artistic freedom and freedom of expression”. Amnesty International said that the EBU had “betrayed humanity” by allowing Israel to participate in Vienna. Israeli singer Noam Bettan performed Michelle. During the semi-final, members of the audience shouted “Stop the genocide” and booed, after which two people were removed from the venue. Bettan was shaken by the experience.
Thus, between 2024 and 2026, Israeli performers faced harassment from pro-Palestinian demonstrators in the host cities, from members of the audience inside the venues and from performers representing other countries. It has also been striking that the professional juries awarded Israel relatively few points, while viewers propelled Israel towards the top of the rankings, giving the country a strong overall result in the competition.
Boy George Does Not Abandon His Jewish Friends
Boy George supports Israel’s participation in Eurovision. In 2024, he was among more than 400 people from the entertainment industry—a figure that has since risen to more than 1,000—who signed an open letter supporting Israel’s continued participation in the competition.
Following the terrorist attack in the Jewish neighbourhood of Golders Green in London on 29 April 2026, Boy George wrote on social media: “Our Jewish community gives us so much… We need to let them know we support them.” When Boy George subsequently appeared on the Irish programme The Late Late Show, he said that supporting his Jewish friends had resulted in a torrent of hateful messages. For him, being asked to turn against an entire people was unacceptable.
On 26 July 2026, Boy George released the song We Will Dance Again on social media. The title refers to the terrorist attack on the Nova festival on 7 October 2023 and to the Israelis’ determination to rise again. The song opens with a defence of Israel’s military intervention in Gaza: “You say genocide, I say war / When you're attacked, that's what the army's for / Does it get ugly? You bet it does / When I know you wanna kill every last one of us.”
He criticises pro-Palestinian musicians who never mention the horrors of 7 October, continuing: “You condemn the Jews, with selective memory / Musicians holding flags, mouthing like sheep.” He himself stands with the Jews: “But if you're ever confused, I stand with the Jews / I don't feel brave, I just need to behave like a human.”
The song was met with fierce criticism. Boy George was accused of supporting genocide, and his use of AI was also criticised. He responded that writing the song together with another person would have been a struggle because he would simply have been told that he could not say such things because they were too controversial. Boy George wanted to release We Will Dance Again through his long-standing record label, BGP, but his manager at the label refused to have anything to do with the song, prompting Boy George to end their collaboration.
Barbara Butch Fell Foul of the Intersectional Hierarchy
Barbara Butch grew up in a traditional Jewish family in Paris and is a lesbian DJ. She became widely known during the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics in July 2024. In a tableau inspired by Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper, she sat at a table alongside drag queens. The scene caused outrage, and she received hateful messages. At the time, however, she received support from the socialist—and pro-Palestinian—party La France Insoumise (LFI). Two years later, those very same “progressives” turned against her.
In 2025, Butch took part in a concert in Tel Aviv, which allegedly made her “complicit in genocide”. In March 2026, she co-signed an opinion piece supporting the Yadan bill, which was intended to combat antisemitism. The bill, however, was accused of criminalising criticism of Israeli government policy and was subsequently withdrawn. She regretted having signed the article, but by then she had become a target of antisemitism.
On 18 July 2026, she performed at the Cabaret Frappé festival in Grenoble. In the weeks leading up to the festival, La France Insoumise and several other pro-Palestinian activists demanded that Barbara Butch be removed from the programme. Her concert was sabotaged by around 150 people who arrived carrying Palestinian flags and harassed her with booing, aggressive shouting and by throwing various objects, including glass bottles. According to the mayor, the electrical installations were also sabotaged. The concert had to be stopped after 20 minutes, and Butch later described the incident as the culmination of a prolonged campaign against her.
The Boycott of French-Israeli Singer Amir
In recent years, French-Israeli singer Amir has been subjected to harassment by La France Insoumise as well as the pro-Hamas group Urgence Palestine. Amir has been criticised for having completed his military service in Israel and for having performed for allegedly far-right Israelis.
Ahead of the Belgian Francofolies de Spa festival from 17–20 July 2025, several performers expressed discomfort at seeing their names on the same bill as Amir. Three of them chose to boycott the festival, a decision praised by LFI politician Thomas Portes. The organisers received numerous demands to remove Amir from the programme, but resisted the pressure.
On 26 July 2025, Amir performed at a festival in the French town of Gardanne. Ahead of the concert, the CGT trade union and several opposition politicians in Gardanne were strongly critical and described his appearance as a “provocation”.
On 5 November 2025, Cécile Beaudouin, a local politician in Brest representing La France Insoumise, called for Amir to be immediately removed from the bill for a concert scheduled for the following day in Brest, claiming that he had participated in the illegal colonisation of Palestine. Her statements led to Amir receiving numerous abusive and antisemitic messages.
On 25 July 2026, Amir performed at a concert in Rognac, but only under extensive security measures. The following day, 26 July, he was due to perform at a concert in Marseille, but the organisers were forced to cancel the event for security reasons after several pro-Palestinian groups had called for a boycott.
Classical Concerts Featuring Israeli Conductor Lahav Shani Are Targeted
Israeli conductor Lahav Shani is the musical director of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra. From 2026, he is also chief conductor of the Munich Philharmonic.
On 18 September 2025, the Munich Philharmonic, conducted by Lahav Shani, was scheduled to perform at the Flanders Festival Ghent. The organisers, however, cancelled the performance because Shani had not publicly and unequivocally distanced himself from the “genocidal” Israeli government. The decision was met with bewilderment and accusations of antisemitism.
On 6 November 2025, Lahav Shani conducted the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra at a concert in Paris. The performance was repeatedly disrupted by pro-Palestinian protesters who blew whistles, while a hooded man set off a smoke bomb. Security guards removed him, the musicians and conductor left the stage, and fear spread through the audience. The second half of the concert proceeded without incident.
Afterwards, one concertgoer reflected on the experience:
“When the orchestra left the stage, I thought of Germany in 1938. And I thought: ‘Will there come a day when Jews are forbidden from appearing on stage in France?’”
