As Israel's Eurovision contender Noam Bettan took to the stage in Vienna on Tuesday evening, chants of “stop the genocide” and “free Palestine” rose from the audience during his introduction and the opening moments of his song.
But when footage of the semifinal performance at Wiener Stadthalle was uploaded to Eurovision's official YouTube channel soon after, fans noticed that the declarations of solidarity with Palestinians were missing, sparking anger and accusations of censorship by Austrian host broadcaster ORF and organiser European Broadcasting Union (EBU).
Four people were also removed from the contest due to pro-Palestine action during Israel's performance, organisers said.
The first semifinal of the competition took place amid fierce backlash to Israel’s participation: several European broadcasters withdrew from the contest, and more than 1,000 artists last month called for a boycott of Eurovision, which they said was being used to "normalise" and "whitewash" Israel's genocide.
Social media users criticised both the removals of pro-Palestinian protesters and audio editing.
Under the YouTube video itself, commenters also accused Eurovision of deleting criticism and sanitising the audience reaction.
“The comment deleting is pathetic,” wrote one user, while another similarly commented: “Why are u deleting comments?”
Country committing genocide can be on the show no problem, but a guy shouting to stop that genocide gets handcuffed and dragged out. Right. Why is anyone watching this https://t.co/fP4xQEeqX7
“They removed and censored the booing and the ‘free palestine’ from the crowd that could be heard during the live stream,” commented another user, adding: “they removed it on the video upload, they can't remove it from the live broadcast obviously so everyone heard it there.”
The Eurovision communications team said in a statement to MEE that the competition removed the pro-Palestinian slogans on the video uploaded to YouTube because they "believe the focus of the Eurovision Song Contest should be on artists and music".
The statement continued that one audience member “close to a microphone” had “loudly expressed their views” during Israel’s performance, and was heard on the live broadcast.
“They were later removed by security for continuing to disturb the audience,” the statement said, adding that three other people were also removed from the arena for “disruptive behaviour”.
Some social media users pointed out that the ORF had promised last year it would not censor booing or audience reactions during performances, as had happened in the previous competition.
“Didn't they say they wont censor anything from the crowd this year?” asked one person.
The crowd chanted “Stop the genocide” as Israeli singer Noam Beitan stepped onto the stage during the Eurovision contest in Vienna, leading to security intervention and the arrest of pro-Palestine supporters. You cannot hide the truth or deny the genocide committed by Israel in… pic.twitter.com/5DrIHRT0iM
Others argued that Israel’s continued participation had fundamentally altered the atmosphere surrounding Eurovision.
“Never let anyone forget that Israel ruined Eurovision, just as it does every single other event that it participates in,” wrote another X user.
The backlash comes Eurovision faces its largest broadcaster boycott in its 70-year history.
Broadcasters from Ireland, Spain, Slovenia, Iceland and the Netherlands withdrew after the EBU declined to hold a vote on Israel’s participation.
The protests surrounding Israel’s participation have also spread beyond Vienna.
