Despite Calls For Its Disqualification, Israel Wins 2nd Place At Eurovision Song Contest

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — Israel’s Yuval Raphael finished in second place overall at the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest in Basel, Switzerland, and first in the public vote, as Austria’s JJ took the overall win at the competition.

During the course of her performance, security officers thwarted two separate attempts by anti-Israel protesters to rush the stage. The incidents were not seen on the live TV broadcast, and Raphael did not appear to be aware of them in real time.

Raphael, a Nova party survivor from Oct. 7th, topped the public vote in Europe with 297 votes, but was only 14th place in the jury vote, landing Israel with a second-place finish.

Austria topped the jury vote and finished fourth in the televote to take the win with its operatic ballad “Wasted Love.” Estonia finished in third place and the heavy favorites going into the competition, Sweden, ended up only in the fourth spot.

Israel received 12 jury points — the highest possible — from only one country, Azerbaijan. It awarded its own 12 jury points to neighboring Greece, and 10 points to Germany.

“Thank you Europe, Am Yisrael Chai,” Raphael shouted from the stage after completing her song, the emotional ballad “New Day Will Rise.”

In a statement, the Kan public broadcaster, which organizes Israel’s participation in the contest, said it “will not address security issues at the event. We are very proud of Yuval Raphael’s perfect performance on the stage.”

During Raphael’s performance, some loud whistles could be heard in the arena, but not on the live TV broadcast. Only a handful of Palestinian flags could be seen in the audience despite Israeli fears that they would be a dominant presence after Swiss organizers relaxed flag rules this year.

As Raphael performed, a few hundred people staged an anti-Israel protest in Basel, accusing Israel of genocide and calling for it to be barred from the competition. Some protesters burned Israeli and American flags and fired off smoke bombs.

Blows were exchanged and police used tear gas and rolled in a water cannon truck as they worked to block demonstrators from marching through the center of the northern Swiss city.

According to Swiss news agency Keystone-ATS, the confrontation began when police intervened to stop an altercation after two men rushed towards the protesters waving Israeli flags.

Over the past year, the European Broadcasting Union steadfastly refused any and all calls for Israel to be barred from the competition. The public broadcasters of Ireland, Spain, Slovenia and Belgium appealed to the EBU to ban Israel, and the organizers responded that they would hold a “wider discussion amongst members in due course.”

Both the Belgian and Spanish broadcasters aired pro-Palestinian messages ahead of and during the Eurovision broadcasts. Spain’s RTVE flashed a screen that read in English and Spanish: “When human rights are at stake, silence is not an option. Peace and Justice for Palestine.”

A message from Belgium’s Flemish VRT broadcaster said it was interrupting the broadcast to protest Israel’s violation of human rights” as well as its destruction of “freedom of the press.”

The EBU did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the messages.

Raphael, a 24-year-old amateur singer from Ra’anana, survived the Hamas massacre at the Nova music festival by playing dead, hiding under a pile of bodies in a roadside bomb shelter for hours, with shrapnel embedded in her leg, until she was ultimately rescued.

Israel has won the competition four times in its 52-year history: in 1978, 1979, 1998 and most recently in 2018, with Netta Barzilai’s “Toy.” Though a number of countries expressed disapproval of Israel hosting the 2019 show in Tel Aviv, ultimately none of them dropped out of the contest.