The Swiss voice in the world since 1935

Basel authorities clarify threatening gestures against Israel at Eurovision

Basel authorities clarify threatening gestures against Israel at the ESC
Basel authorities clarify threatening gestures against Israel at the ESC Keystone-SDA

The Basel cantonal police are investigating the alleged threatening behaviour of an anti-Israel demonstrator at the Eurovision Song Contest parade that took place on Sunday. The police are preparing a report on the incident, wrote the public prosecutor’s office on Monday at the request of Keystone-SDA news agency.

+Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox

The Israeli public broadcaster Kan had previously announced on its website that it would be filing a complaint against the demonstrator with the Basel authorities.

Kan published a video of Sunday’s parade to mark the start of the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC), which was also shared on social media. It shows a man with a Palestinian flag and a whistle performing a beheading gesture. This is said to have been aimed at the Israeli ESC delegation with singer Yuval Raphael, writes Kan. Raphael is a survivor of the Hamas terrorist attack on the Nova music festival in Israel on October 7, 2023.

+ Eurovision opens with parade through Basel

The man protested against the Israeli delegation during the parade along with other people near the Middle Bridge, as can be seen in the video. Kan also writes that she contacted the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) about the incident. At the request of the Keystone-SDA news agency, the EBU referred the matter to the Basel authorities.

Translated from German by DeepL/jdp

How we work

We select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate them into English. A journalist then reviews the translation for clarity and accuracy before publication. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. The news stories we select have been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team from news agencies such as Bloomberg or Keystone.

Did you find this explanation helpful? Please fill out the short survey below to help us understand your needs.

External Content

Don’t miss your chance to make a difference! Take our survey and share your thoughts.

A smartphone displays the SWIplus app with news for Swiss citizens abroad. Next to it, a red banner with the text: ‘Stay connected with Switzerland’ and a call to download the app.

Popular Stories

Most Discussed

News

In compliance with the JTI standards

More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative

You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!

If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.

SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR

SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR