Yuval Raphael breaks her silence on boycotts, backlash and fear after Eurovision 2025

For many Eurovision artists, the post-contest period is about streams, showcases and the gentle comedown from a very loud spring.
For Yuval Raphael, it has been something else entirely.

Israel’s Eurovision 2025 representative has given an extensive and unusually candid interview to the Daily Mail, speaking not only about her career since the contest, but also about the growing political pressure surrounding Israel’s participation and the personal cost that has come with it.

It is the first time Raphael has addressed the boycott movement directly. And she does not soften her words.

“This isn’t courage. It’s fear of dialogue”

Asked about the decision by several countries to boycott the upcoming Eurovision because of Israel’s participation, Raphael frames the issue as one of principle rather than tactics.

Under banners of “justice” and “morality”, she argues, some broadcasters have chosen exclusion and called it values. In her view, collective boycotts do not protect anyone. They simply add another layer of hostility.

“It’s painful to watch,” she says, describing the boycott campaign as a small reflection of what Israel experiences on the international stage. Countries that opt for collective exclusion, she insists, are not making a brave stand. They are avoiding conversation.

It is a line that cuts straight through the usual talking points. Whether one agrees with her or not, Raphael is clearly done with speaking in safe generalities.

Eurovision, music and the people who just want to watch

Raphael also pushes back against the idea that Israel’s presence somehow damages the contest itself.

“Israel is not dismantling Eurovision,” she says. “Those who boycott are doing that to themselves.”

Her argument is simple. Millions of viewers around the world tune in for music, emotion and connection, not as an extension of geopolitical debate. To deny them that experience, she says, is to strike at the very core of what Eurovision claims to be.

It is a reminder that, for many fans, Eurovision still functions as a shared cultural space. Messy, imperfect, but fundamentally human.

On Nemo, trophies and turning music into statements

The interview also touches on the decision by Nemo, winner of Eurovision 2024, to return their trophy in protest over Israel’s participation.

Raphael does not hide her frustration. For her, the contest Nemo won was about one of the simplest and most meaningful things in life: music. Turning that into a political gesture, she says, empties it of its original purpose.

Her response is not confrontational, but pointed. “How deeply did you really look?” she asks. “Where did you search? How much did you learn?”

And then an invitation, rather than a rebuttal. Meet me. Sit with me. Talk.

When online hatred stops being abstract

Perhaps the most unsettling part of the interview comes when Raphael describes what travelling abroad has become like.

Insults, she says, no longer register. She puts them down to ignorance and moves on. But threats are different. Messages saying “we’re looking for you”. Warnings that cross from words into something more tangible.

“That’s frightening,” she admits. The hatred does not stay online. It spills into real life. And Jews, she says, are becoming targets around the world.

Her question is quiet but heavy. What did Jews in Australia do to anyone? This, she insists, does not come from nowhere.

A voice that refuses to stay neutral

Raphael’s interview is not an attempt to persuade everyone. It does not try to reconcile opposing positions neatly. What it does do is insist on being heard, fully and without filters.

In a Eurovision landscape increasingly shaped by withdrawal statements and carefully worded silences, that alone feels significant.

Whether audiences embrace her views or reject them, Yuval Raphael has made one thing clear: she is no longer willing to exist only as a name in a running order.

Source: Maariv