Pro-Palestine protests in Basel this week called for Israel to be excluded from Eurovision. In the end, the song by Yuval Raphael came second.
Keystone-SDA
Three police officers were injured on Saturday during an unauthorised protest against Israel’s participation in the Eurovision Song Contest. Police carried out checks of around 400 people at the demonstration.
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According to a Keystone-ATS journalist, between 700 and 800 people gathered at around 7pm in the centre of Basel for the protest against Israel and its Eurovision participation.
An altercation broke out when two men appeared carrying Israeli flags, which several of the demonstrators tried to snatch away. A police team intervened and removed the men from the rally.
The demonstrators then saw their route barred by police vans and a line of officers. After around 45 minutes, the participants started moving and crossed a bridge to reach the Petit-Bâle area of the city. There, police prevented any further progress towards the official public viewing area for the Eurovision contest, including by using rubber bullets, according to Keystone-SDA.
Firecrackers
The police then stopped the march and surrounded around 500 people, 400 of whom were checked.
During this operation, firecrackers were thrown at the police, and three officers had to be hospitalised. One protester was also treated for injuries on the spot, police said in a statement. Tram traffic in the city centre was interrupted for almost an hour.
Adapted from French by DeepL/dos
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