Martin Meissner/AP
Israel’s Eurovision act faced a barrage of boos and chants of ‘Free Palestine’ when taking to the stage for the competition’s Jury Show on Wednesday night.
The show, which takes place the night before the televised semi-final, is where entries are reviewed and scored by the respective national juries.
Israel’s inclusion in the competition has come under intense scrutiny since the attacks started on Gaza last year.
One of those in attendance of the show last night posted about their experience on X, saying that the atmosphere inside the venue during Israel’s performance was ‘horrible’.
They added that you could ‘feel the tension’.
Videos were shared across social media which show loud boos and chants during the entirety of Israel’s performance.
This year, 20-year-old Israeli-Russian singer Eden Golan is representing Israel with her song ‘Hurricane’,
The song’s original title ‘October Rain’ received heavy scrutiny as it was inspired by the Hamas attack on Israel last year, which has since led to the killing of over 34,000 Palestinians by Israeli troops.
Since the song was viewed as a political message, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) demanded it be rewritten and re-worded in February.
After multiple re-writes, ‘Hurricane’ was eventually accepted on March 7 by the EBU.
There have been a number of protests in Sweden (the host country for this year’s contest) over Israel’s participation, and a pro-Palestinian march is expected to take place on Thursday, May 9.
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