Pro-Palestinian protesters faced the riot police in Basel when the Swiss city organized the Eurovision song contest on Saturday, AFP journalists on the scene.
The protesters who demonstrated against Israel’s participation in the contest while increasing their war in Gaza collided with letters with the police in the city center shortly before the Eurovision participant of Israel, Yuval Raphael Tok, to the place of Staobshalle.
Blows were exchanged and the police used tear gas and rolled in a water cannon truck while struggling that the protesters march through the center of the Swiss city of the North, full of Eurovision fans.
According to the Swiss news agency Keystone-Ats, the confrontation advanced when the police intervened to stop an altercation after two men rushed towards the protesters who stirred Israeli flags.
The Israel National Security Council issued a warning to the Israelis in Basel about the demonstration, advising them to “avoid confrontations with protesters and keep the Israeli identifiers of low profile in public spaces.”
In the midst of a sea of Palestinian flags, hundreds of protesters, many with Keffiyeh Palestinas scarves, carried signs that said: “Without music for murder”, “Genocide Stop” and “Singing while Gaza burns.”
Some of the protesters burned giant and American giant flags, while others left red and green smoke.
A woman, her face stained red, cradled a seemingly bloody package that represents the children who died in the accompaniment of the Gaza Strip while the police in the riot team looked.
At a time when Israel is dramatically increasing the brutal war in Gaza, protesters were demonstrating against the participation of Israeli law, which is among the favorites in the final of Saturday.
Raphael survived the attack of October 7, 2023 against Israel that caused the war in Gaza, hidden under the bodies while Hamas’ gunmen attacked a music festival, killing hundreds.
Duration his performance of his song “New Day Will Rise” on Saturday, you could hear strong whistles in the sand, according to an AFP photographer in the hall.
There are bone from a series of narrower protests against Israel through Eurovision’s week in Basel, and protesters interrupted the act of Raphael during a general trial for one of the semifinals.
Earlier this week, Israel’s public station, Kan, said she had filed a police complaint after filming a protester apparently making a “throat height gesture” in the country’s delegation that dealt with the parade of the Eurovision opening ceremony on Sunday.
Israel launched an offensive intensified in Gaza on Saturday aimed at “the defeat of Hamas”, the Islamist militant group that launched a deadly attack against Israel in October 2023.
The intensified campaign in the war that has already left tens of thousands of deaths occurred in the midst of a growing international concern for the humanitarian conditions of Woresingen in Gaza, where an Israeli aid block continues to restrict help.
