'I've practised being booed' Israel's Eurovision entry tells BBC
The last major music event she attended was the Nova festival, in Israel, where she was nearly killed. On 7 October 2023, the singer fled the festival when Hamas gunmen started shooting.
Now she's preparing to go on stage at the world's largest music event.
"It's something I deal with every day," she told the BBC. "It feels like a personal win, just to be having this experience and representing my country and doing it with such pride."
On that day - one and a half years ago - Ms Raphael was attending her first outdoor rave. As rockets were fired from Gaza into Israel, and Hamas gunmen started shooting at revellers, she attempted to flee the carnage.
She and her friends took refuge in a concrete bomb shelter at the side of a road. Around 50 people were crammed in, lying on top of each other.
But there was no escape as the gunmen shot repeatedly into the mass of bodies in the shelter and then threw in hand grenades.
Ms Raphael managed to call her father in tears, as heard in a recording played in an Israeli documentary. "Dad, lots of people are dead. Send the police here. Please dad, send the police, it's urgent.. they're crushing me," she said.
"Be quiet," he replied. "Yuvali my daughter. Yuvali, breathe deep. Hide. Play dead."
"Bye," she said, thinking that was the end.
Ms Raphael was one of only 11 people in the shelter to survive. She hid under a pile of dead bodies for eight hours until they were rescued.
That day, around 1,200 people were killed by gunmen led by Hamas, and 251 were taken hostage.
Ms Raphael's professional singing career started after the attack. "I wished for myself to be happy and to really understand the gift that I had been given, and that's to live," she says. "To have more experiences, to be happy and to live fully."
On Thursday, the 24-year-old will sing her song, New Day Will Rise, at the Eurovision semi-final with shrapnel still in her leg.
The rules of the European Broadcasting Union – which is in charge of Eurovision – means no political statements can be made. The singer won't describe what happened to her at Nova during the run-up to the competition. She previously gave testimony about her experience to the United Nations.
The Israeli entrant has had to contend with protests about her country's participation in the song contest.
Irish national broadcaster RTÉ asked the EBU for a discussion on Israel's inclusion. Its director general, Kevin Bakhurst, said he was "appalled by the ongoing events in the Middle East and by the horrific impact on civilians in Gaza, and the fate of Israeli hostages". Spain and Slovenia's broadcasters also asked for a discussion.
Last week, more than 70 former Eurovision contestants signed a letter calling on the organisers to ban Israel from the competition.
More than 52,800 people have been killed in Gaza since the 7 October attacks, including 2,700 since the Israeli offensive resumed, according to the territory's health ministry.
In previous years, other countries have been banned from the contest. Belarus was suspended in 2021 after submitting an overtly political entry and a year later Russia was barred over the war in Ukraine.
Ms Raphael said she was trying not to deal with those who say her country shouldn't be competing. "Everybody has opinions," she said. "I'm really putting everything aside and just concentrating on the most important thing. The slogan this year is 'united by music' and that's what we are here for."
Eurovision said it understood the concerns and views about the current situation in the Middle East, but insisted members should ensure Eurovision remained a "universal event that promotes connections, diversity and inclusion through music".
Nevertheless, Israeli fans have been warned by their country's National Security Council not to wear Jewish or Israeli symbols while attending Eurovision.
On Sunday, during the Eurovision opening parade in the Swiss host city of Basel, the Israeli delegation made a complaint to the police and the EBU after accusing a pro-Palestinian demonstrator of making a throat-slitting gesture and spitting at the delegation.
"It was scary at times, even uncomfortable, but it makes me keep reminding myself why I'm here and my agenda, which is spreading as much love as I can and bringing pride to my country," Ms Raphael said.
Ireland asks Eurovision organisers for discussion over Israel
Hamas attack survivor to represent Israel at Eurovision
Swiss host city Basel promises 'everyone is welcome' at Eurovision
Last year, the Israeli singer Eden Golan, who said she received death threats, was booed as she sang. "I think I'm expecting it," admitted Ms Raphael, when she was asked if she too anticipated booing. "But we are here to sing and I'm going to sing my heart out for everyone."
She said they had done a few rehearsals with sounds in the background so she could practise with distractions. Asked if that was upsetting, she told the BBC she had a lot of emotions she was putting aside to stay focused.
"I really think I have a lot of weight on my shoulders, I have a very big responsibility. I have a lot of people at home that are expecting something."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Post
2 hours ago
- New York Post
Ozzy Osbourne was ‘frail and suffering' at Black Sabbath farewell concert: biographer
Daniel Bukszpan, who wrote a biography about Ozzy Osbourne in 2023, couldn't bring himself to watch the rocker's farewell concert that took place less than three weeks before his death. 'I couldn't watch it. I mean, Ozzy was so frail and just so obviously suffering,' the 'Ozzy At 75 : The Unofficial Illustrated History' author exclusively told The Post. 'I really had a hard time with it,' Bukszpan admitted. 'I feel like it's something I still have to confront.' Advertisement 8 Ozzy Osbourne during his farewell concert with Black Sabbath on July 5. Ozzy Osbourne/Instagram On July 5, Osbourne reunited with his former Black Sabbath bandmates for their 'Back to the Beginning' concert at Villa Park in the band's hometown of Birmingham, England. The Prince of Darkness, who was battling Parkinson's, performed for the 42,000-person crowd in what turned out to be the final concert of his life. Advertisement 8 Ozzy Osbourne backstage at his farewell concert. Ozzy Osbourne/Instagram 'At the time I sort of felt like, oh, they're making this poor man go on stage when clearly he's not up to it, and how can they do that to him?' Bukszpan told The Post. 'But that was before he died. Now that he died, and especially since he died so soon after, it's like, no, that was exactly the point.' 8 Daniel Bukszpan wrote a biography about Ozzy Osbourne in 2023. Daniel Bukszpan 8 Daniel Bukszpan's biography 'Ozzy at 75: The Unofficial Illustrated History.' Daniel Bukszpan Advertisement 'That was what he wanted,' the author continued. 'He wanted basically a big Irish wake. That's what that was. But it was before he was dead. So I did not recognize it as a big Irish wake until he passed. And then it was like, oh, okay, all right.' Bukszpan also pointed out that Osbourne was deteriorating from other issues, including a severe spinal injury, before his death. 8 Ozzy Osbourne with Sharon Osbourne and Jason Momoa at his final show. Ozzy Osbourne/Instagram 'He was in a lot of physical pain for that last part of his life,' Bukszpan said. 'And I'm certainly glad he's not dealing with that anymore. He was in chronic pain for about the last 20 years of his life. He had pain throughout his entire body for 20 years and he still was like, 'But when can I go back on stage?'' Advertisement 'I really respect that. He knew what he needed to do and he knew what he wanted to do. And he did it for as long as he possibly could.' 8 Daniel Bukszpan in his interview with The Post. New York Post Bukszpan noted that while the 'Crazy Train' singer 'was ailing for a long time,' he 'didn't want pity' from fans or for the public 'to think of him as this frail old man.' The author also said that Osbourne always owned up to his mistakes, including in his marriage to wife Sharon Osbourne and in his career. 8 Ozzy Osbourne speaks onstage at iHeartRadio Theater in California in Feb. 2020. Getty Images for iHeartMedia 'He took responsibility for the things he did. I never saw him blame anyone for anything,' Bukszpan told The Post. 'When he was fired from Black Sabbath… there are a lot of musicians who, when they leave their original bands, make this whole career out of talking about how much that band sucked. He never did that. He copped to pretty much everything.' 8 Ozzy Osbourne photographed for the Los Angeles Times in 2020. Contour RA Advertisement In hindsight, he's 'not surprised' Osbourne passed so quickly after his final concert. 'I think he really just took his whole job, all of it, very seriously,' Bukszpan said. 'He had a real work ethic about my job is to show up for people, give them a good time, and at my concerts they'll forget their troubles for two hours. I think he had an absolute diehard, utter commitment to that for his entire life. And that was how he lived.'
Los Angeles Times
a day ago
- Los Angeles Times
‘Hurricane Katrina: Race Against Time' focuses on disaster victims, who reflect 20 years later
It's been 20 years since Hurricane Katrina reshaped the City of New Orleans. Spike Lee examined the disaster with two big HBO documentaries, the 2006 'When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts,' just a year after the event, and a 2010 sequel, 'If God Is Willing and Da Creek Don't Rise,' and is involved with a new work for Netflix, 'Katrina: Come Hell and High Water,' arriving in late August. Other nonfiction films have been made on the subject over the years, including 'Trouble the Water,' winner of the grand jury prize at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, Nova's 'Hurricane Katrina: The Storm That Drowned a City,' 'Hurricane Katrina: Through the Eyes of the Children,' and 'Dark Water Rising: Survival Stories of Hurricane Katrina Animal Rescues,' while the storm also framed the excellent 2022 hospital-set docudrama 'Five Days at Memorial.' As a personified disaster with a human name and a week-long arc, it remains famous, or infamous, and indelible. In the gripping five-part 'Hurricane Katrina: Race Against Time,' premiering over two subsequent nights beginning Sunday at 8 p.m. on National Geographic (all episodes stream on Hulu and Disney+ Monday), director Traci A. Curry ('Attica') necessarily repeats many of Lee's incidents and themes. But she finds her own way through mountains of material in the series that is at once highly compelling and difficult to watch — though I suggest you do. Though there are many paths to take through the story, they lead to the same conclusions. Curry speaks with survivors, activists, scientists, officials and journalists, some of whom also appear in archival footage, but her eye is mainly on the victims, the people who lost their homes, people who lost their people, those unable to evacuate, for lack of money or transportation or the need to care for family members. If the storm itself was an assault on the city, most everything else — the broken levees, the flooded streets, the slow government response, the misinformation, the exaggerations and the mischaracterizations taken as fact — constituted an attack on the poor, which in New Orleans meant mostly Black people. ('The way they depicted Black folks,' says one survivor regarding sensational media coverage of the aftermath, when troops with automatic weapons patrolled the streets as if in a war zone, 'it's like they didn't see us as regular people, law abiding, churchgoing, hard working people.') Effective both as an informational piece and a real-life drama, 'Race Against Time' puts you deep into the story, unfolding as the week did. First, the calm before the storm ('One of the most peaceful scariest things,that a person can experience,' says one 8th Ward resident), as Katrina gained power over the Gulf of Mexico. Then the storm, which ripped off part of the Superdome roof, where citizens had been instructed to shelter, and plunged the city into darkness; but when that passed, it looked briefly like the apocalypse missed them. Then the levees, never well designed, were breached in multiple locations and 80% of the city, which sits in a bowl between the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain, found itself under water. Homes drown: 'You're looking at your life, the life that your parents provided for you, your belongings being ruined, your mother's furniture that she prided is being thrown against a wall.' Residents are driven onto roofs, hoping for rescue, while dead bodies float in the water. This is also in many ways the most heartening part of the series, as neighbors help neighbors and firefighters and police set about rescuing as many as possible, going house to house in boats running on gasoline siphoned from cars and trucks. A coast guardsman tears up at the memory of carrying a baby in her bare arms as they were winched into a helicopter. And then we descend into a catalog of institutional failures — of governance, of communication, of commitment, of nerve, of common sense, of service, of the media, which, camped in the unflooded French Quarter or watching from afar, repeated rumors as fact, helping create a climate of fear. (Bill O'Reilly, then still sitting pretty at Fox News, suggests looters should be shot dead.) More people escaping the flood arrive at the Superdome, where the bathrooms and the air conditioning don't work, there's no food or water and people suffer in the August heat, waiting for days to be evacuated. Instead, the National Guard comes to town along with federal troops, which residents of this city know is not necessarily a good thing. Many speakers here make a deep impression — community organizer Malik Rahim, sitting on his porch, speaking straight to the camera, with his long white hair and beard, is almost a guiding spirit — but the star of this show is the eminently sensible Lt. Gen. Russel L. Honoré(now retired), a Louisiana Creole, who was finally brought in to coordinate operations between FEMA and the military. (We see him walking through the streets, ordering soldiers to 'put your guns on your back, don't be pointing guns at nobody.') Honoré, who is free with his opinions here, had respect for the victims — 'When you're poor in America, you're not free, and when you're poor you learn to have patience' — but none for foolish officialdom, the main fool being FEMA director Michael Brown, mismanaging from Baton Rouge, who would resign soon after the hurricane. When buses finally did arrive, passengers were driven away, and some later flown off, with no announcement of where they were headed; family members might be scattered around the country. Many would never return to New Orleans, and some who did, no longer recognized the place they left, not only because of the damage, but because of the new development. The arrival of this and the upcoming Lee documentary is dictated by the calendar, but the timing is also fortuitous, given where we are now. Floods and fires, storms and cyclones are growing more frequent and intense, even as Washington strips money from the very agencies designed to predict and mitigate them or aid in recovery. Last week, Ken Pagurek, the head of FEMA's urban search and rescue unit resigned, reportedly over the agency's Trump-hobbled response to the Texas flood, following the departure of Jeremy Greenberg, who led FEMA's disaster command center. Trump, for his part, wants to do away with the agency completely. And yet Curry manages to end her series on an optimistic note. Residents of the Lower 9th Ward have returned dying wetlands to life, creating a community park that will help control the next storm surge. Black Masking Indians — a.k.a. Mardi Gras Indians — are still sewing their fanciful, feathered costumes and parading in the street.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
BBC local broadcasting 'legend' dies
Former BBC Radio Sheffield presenter Gerry Kersey, who became a listeners' favourite during his 50 years in broadcasting, has died. The 86-year-old, who worked for both the BBC and independent radio, had been ill for some time and died on Friday morning with his wife, Christine, at his side. Paying tribute, Katrina Bunker, Head of BBC Yorkshire, said: "Gerry was a true legend of local broadcasting, starting his career in 1968 as one of the first voices on BBC Radio Sheffield." Away from the microphone, he had a talent for performing in theatre and for art. His paintings featured in exhibitions and he raised money for charity by making and selling Christmas cards featuring his work. In a 2018 interview in the Sheffield Star marking his 50 years in broadcasting, he recalled that in the 1970s he was doing two jobs, handling advertising for local company Stanley Tools and doing radio work. "It became an alarmingly unbalanced life," he told the newspaper. But broadcasting eventually won his heart. "I decided, with my wife's full approval, that although it was only earning £12 a week I would take it on and see what I could do," he said. It turned out well and Gerry became a listeners' favourite, both for the BBC and on independent station Radio Hallam. Ms Bunker said: "In later years he was known for request-based and nostalgia shows and he got loads of letters, emails and calls right up to his last show in 2020. "Wherever you went around the area you would always meet someone who loved Gerry's show. "Off-mic, Gerry was just as much of a gentleman as he was on it, always encouraging , always warm and proud to still be on the radio after 50 years. "He will be sadly missed by all who knew him." Listen to highlights from South Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North
