Ever since Oct. 7, I have strangely looked forward to the annual Eurovision contest. Not for the music, really. Mostly I look forward to the arrival of the Israeli contestant, a rare moment to glimpse an actually brave artist in the sea of “pick-me” conformism that passes for a music scene today.
As a music fan, I don’t insist on courage from artists—I understand the business calculation behind, say, Green Day’s copycat bandwagoning or some no-name Irish frat-rap trio’s fame-thirsty attempt at recognition through incitement. Indeed, if I listened only to bands that didn’t float like wisps in the political winds, I wouldn’t have much on the playlist.
The part that does annoy me, however, is the way these bands and their fans cast themselves as heroes for doing what everyone else in their industry is doing—in this case, Hamasifying their otherwise staid stage presence.
Which is not to say I don’t find some enjoyment in the masquerade. After all, bandwagoning anti-Zionism is the most money-grubbing capitalist thing one can do in the entertainment business, and I’d have to have a heart of stone not to laugh at, say, Rage Against the Machine’s embrace of it. (Tom Morello, neoliberal!)
But this week, Yuval Raphael walked the welcoming carpet at the opening of the Eurovision contest in Basel, Switzerland. Raphael is Israel’s contestant in the competition. Because she is from the Jewish state, the normal fans cheering her were joined by keffiyeh-clad protesters waving Palestinian flags, one of whom made a throat-slitting gesture as Raphael’s delegation went by. He stepped toward the Israelis and spat at them.
Now, Israelis are quite used to getting random death threats from cosplaying revolutionaries comfortably ensconced in their flats thousands of miles from the conflict zone. Yuval Raphael just smiled and waved, and at one point made a heart gesture with her hands. That’s pretty much how it goes—Israeli hearts and Palestinian neck-slicing; they’re partners in a familiar dance.
But there is more to the story when it comes to Raphael. She is a survivor of the Nova massacre, the largest mass killing at a music festival in history. Her story is harrowing, and her appearance at Eurovision is, frankly, an inspiring if not historic moment for music fans everywhere.
As Hamas monsters hunted the Jews in and around the Nova grounds on Oct. 7, Raphael and some friends hid in a bomb shelter near the road with dozens of others trying to escape the onslaught. Hamas terrorists shot everyone in front of the shelter trying to get inside and then shot up the inside of the shelter as well, killing most of the civilians. Raphael opened her eyes after the shooters left to find her leg was pinned by a dead body. Raphael’s father, thinking quickly, told her to hang up the phone and play dead as long as the terrorists were stalking the grounds.
She and the others who were still alive did so. The terrorists came back repeatedly and shot up the inside of the bomb shelter every time. In the suffocating heat, in pain from injuries and surrounded by dead bodies, the group then faced a new threat: Terrorists started throwing grenades into the shelter. As bodies exploded around her, Raphael and a few others managed to survive until help came.
So, no, the spitting Palestinian in Basel isn’t going to scare her. But her participation in the contest requires the kind of security that, it goes without saying, no one else there needs. After the attempted disruptions and death threats at the opening parade, officials in Basel made the city a no-fly zone and also prohibited drones. “Significant numbers” of undercover Israeli security personnel are also on the ground. When you are Israeli, you have to travel with a head-of-state level of security.
European broadcasters tried to get Raphael disqualified from the contest entirely, on account of her national origin. They were unsuccessful, but Raphael knows her performance will be slightly different from the others. “She said they had done a few rehearsals with sounds in the background so she could practice with distractions,” the BBC reported after asking her how she prepared for the inevitable booing.
Very few artists risk anything in today’s music world. Because Raphael survived a massacre, she might never be truly safe to travel anywhere. She’ll get the cold shoulder from her fellow artists, one suspects, because actual courage repels them.
