{"id":81642,"date":"2026-05-13T14:18:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T14:18:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/81642\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T14:18:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T14:18:10","slug":"protesters-removed-during-israels-eurovision-semi-final-performance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/81642\/","title":{"rendered":"Protesters removed during Israel\u2019s Eurovision semi-final performance"},"content":{"rendered":"

Four audience members were removed from the first Eurovision Song Contest semi-final in Vienna after protests during Israel\u2019s performance, organisers said, as the contest opened under pressure over Israel\u2019s participation and boycotts by five countries<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The European Broadcasting Union and Austrian host broadcaster ORF said one spectator near a microphone \u201cloudly expressed their views\u201d as Israeli singer Noam Bettan began his song Michelle. Chants of \u201cstop the genocide\u201d were heard during quiet parts of the performance.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n

The EBU told SVT<\/a> that the person was removed for disruption. Three other spectators were also removed from the Wiener Stadthalle for what the organisers described as\u00a0\u201cdisruptive\u201d behaviour.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

ORF had said before the show that it would not ban Palestinian flags inside the venue or censor audience reaction. A Palestinian flag was visible in the crowd during the broadcast. Many Israeli flags were also waved during Bettan\u2019s performance.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Eurovision executive producer Michael Kroen\u00a0has said previously that the broadcast would not hide audience reaction. \u201cWe will not sugarcoat anything or avoid showing what is happening, because our task is to show things as they are,\u201d he said in a press conference by ORF last December.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Ireland, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Spain and Iceland are boycotting this year\u2019s event over Israel\u2019s genocide in Gaza. More than 1,000 musicians and cultural workers have also called for a boycott.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The EBU has rejected calls to exclude Israel and has said the contest must remain a neutral cultural event. Critics have accused the organiser of applying different standards after Russia was barred from Eurovision following its invasion of Ukraine in 2022.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s participation has faced protests at recent contests in Malm\u00f6, Basel and now Vienna. This year\u2019s Eurovision marks the event\u2019s 70th edition. The second semi-final takes place on Thursday, with the grand final scheduled for Saturday.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Bettan qualified for Saturday\u2019s final despite the protests. Israel advanced alongside Finland, Greece, Belgium, Sweden, Moldova, Serbia, Croatia, Lithuania and Poland.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Finland\u2019s Linda Lampenius and Pete Parkkonen also reached the final with Liekinheitin.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The Finnish act entered the semi-final as one of the favourites. Their final running slot will be decided by the Eurovision production team after Finland drew \u201cproducer\u2019s choice\u201d following the semi-final.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

HT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Four audience members were removed from the first Eurovision Song Contest semi-final in Vienna after protests during Israel\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":81643,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[87],"tags":[43501,3057,158,43499,113,43497,18006,43498,43502,43500,18007,10896],"class_list":{"0":"post-81642","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-helsinki","8":"tag-ebu","9":"tag-eurovision-2026","10":"tag-finland","11":"tag-finland-eurovision","12":"tag-helsinki","13":"tag-israel-eurovision","14":"tag-linda-lampenius","15":"tag-noam-bettan","16":"tag-orf","17":"tag-palestine-protest","18":"tag-pete-parkkonen","19":"tag-vienna"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/116567704043835989","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81642","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81642"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81642\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}