Pro-Palestine Protesters Disrupted Israel’s Eurovision Contestant Performance By Booing And Chanting “Stop The Genocide”
Throughout Bettan's opening verse, multiple people were heard chanting, "stop, stop the genocide," and "free, free Palestine."
Pro-Palestine protesters disrupted Israel's Eurovision performance at the semi-final in Vienna by booing and chanting “stop the genocide.”
As 28-year-old Israeli singer Noam Bettan began his performance of "Michelle" during Eurovision’s semi-final live show on Tuesday, May 13, some people in the crowd erupted in boos.
Throughout Bettan's opening verse, multiple people were heard chanting, "stop, stop the genocide," and "free, free Palestine."
Other videos then showed security forcibly removing and dragging at least four people for disrupting the event.
Later on Tuesday, a few dozen pro-Palestine activists also placed coffins in central Vienna in protest against Israel's participation.
Five countries, Ireland, the Netherlands, Spain, Slovenia and Iceland, are already boycotting Eurovision this year after Eurovision’s organizing body, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), confirmed that Israel would remain in the 2026 contest despite its genocide in Gaza.
It is the largest boycott in Eurovision history, with only 35 countries participating.
Israel’s participation in the event was also controversial after Israel’s 2025 contestant won the public televote but received zero points from the professional juries.
After an investigation, the EBU found Israel had paid for digital ads that linked to Israeli government outreach channels, pushing videos that urged people to back its Eurovision contestant Yuval Raphael and reminded them they could vote up to 20 times.
In response to the voting controversy, the EBU changed its voting rules, halving the maximum number of votes per person from 20 to 10.
During the 2026 contest, the EBU also issued Israel's public broadcaster a formal warning after it posted social media videos instructing viewers to "vote 10 times for Israel.
Despite the backlash, Bettan qualified for the grand final at Vienna's Wiener Stadhalle on Saturday, May 16.
He will compete against nine other acts, including Finnish duo Linda Lampenius and Pete Parkkonen, whose song "Liekinheitin" bookmakers currently give a 34 percent chance of winning.
Cherry Mohamed
Cherry Mohamed
Cherry Mohamed
