The survivor of the terrorist attack at the Nova Hamas music festival has won a place to represent Israel at Eurovision
Survivors of Terrorist attack on the Nova music festival On October 7, 2023, Hamasa channeled her therapeutic journey through music and on Thursday secured a spot to represent Israel at the Eurovision Song Contest in Basel, Switzerland.
Yuval Raphael, 24, he reportedly started singing as a way to cope with the trauma she experienced after she, four of her friends and approximately 40 others tried to hide in a roadside bomb shelter near Kibbutz Re’im after fleeing the festival by car after the attack.
Raphael, who was forced to hide under the bodies of those killed in front of her for about eight hours before help arrived, shared her story and described how Hamas terrorists repeatedly returned to the shelter and opened fire on those hiding inside.
Eventually, the terrorists began throwing grenades into the concrete shelter, a story similar to what dozens experienced that day, including American-Israeli Hersh Goldberg-Polin.
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“Music is one of the strongest ingredients in my healing process,” she said during Thursday’s competition, The Times of Israel reported.
Despite her previous experience as a singer, Raphael secured her first place after singing “The Writings on the Wall” followed by a rendition of ABBA’s “Dancing Queen” dedicated to “all the angels” killed in the October 2023 terrorist attack.
Raphael is before that attracted international attention not with her strong voice, but by sharing her experience with the United Nations Human Rights Council in a move she said was not politically motivated, but rather an attempt to draw attention to what innocent civilians endured on that tragic day.
Pictures are shown on the walls of a bomb shelter near Kibbutz Be’eri in southern Israel, April 7, 2024, where six months earlier people sought refuge before being killed during a deadly attack on Israel by Hamas terrorists from Gaza on October 7. (Reuters/Amir Cohen)
Yuval Raphael, 24, won a place to represent Israel at the Eurovision Song Contest on January 23, 2023, after having no previous singing experience. (Ortal Dahan Ziv)
“I want to tell them the story of the country, about what I went through, what I am about what others have gone through“, she reportedly said before the finale. “I want to tell the story, but not from a place of seeking pity. I want it to be from a place of holding strong in the face of this and in the face of the boos that I’m 100% sure will come from the crowd.”
Raphaela’s comments related to the resistance she and other Israelis have faced during international competitions, including in 2024, following the terrorist attack and subsequent Israel Defense Forces (IDF) operations in Gaza.
Yuval Raphael, 24, won a place to represent Israel at the Eurovision Song Contest on January 23, 2023, despite having no previous singing experience. (Ortal Dahan Ziv)
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Israel faced calls to be banned from the international contest, but the European Broadcasting Union rejected the pressure, confirming that Eurovision is a non-political music event. Israel’s 2024 contestant, Eden Golan, faced anti-Israel protests and had to be given a Shin Bet security detail.
Golan also had to change the title of her song “October Rain” to “Hurricane” because event officials felt it was too political, The Times of Israel reported.
