Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke on Wednesday with Israel’s Eurovision star Yuval Rapahel, who took second place in the international song contest on Saturday night, praising her performance.
“You brought so much honor and pride to your country, especially after what you went through,” Netanyahu told Raphael, a survivor of the Hamas massacre at the Nova music festival on Oct. 7, 2023, according to a transcript of the call released by his office. “When you stood there with your hands up [at the end of the song] and said ‘Am Yisrael Chai,’ it moved all of our hearts.”
Raphael, 24, got the most audience votes for her song, “New Day Will Rise.”
“You entered the hearts of a huge portion of the public in Europe,” said Netanyahu.
“All I wanted was to bring the country one moment, one second of pleasure in all this abnormal craziness that’s going on in here ... that was the most important thing to me,” Raphael told the premier. “And the most important thing is for the hostages to come home and be here with us and be happy with us and recover.”
Fifty-eight hostages are still being held by Hamas in Gaza, 23 of whom are believed to be alive.
Raphael, an amateur singer, took the stage in Basel amid heightened political tension, with boos from some in the audience protesting Israel’s participation, and pro-Palestinian protests outside the arena.
