SHOTLIST: BASEL, SWITZERLAND (MAY 17, 2025) (ANADOLU - ACCESS ALL) 1. VARIOUS OF PROTESTERS HOLDING PALESTINIAN FLAGS, SIGNS/ CHANTING SLOGANS/ MARCHING 2. ONE OF PROTESTERS, YAFA, SPEAKING TO REPORTER (English) 3. ANOTHER PROTESTER, URS HAENGGI, SPEAKING TO REPORTER (English) BASEL, SWITZERLAND - MAY 17: Protesters gathered in Switzerland’s Basel on Saturday, May 17, to protest Israel’s participation in the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest as well as the genocide it is committing in Gaza. Thousands of people gathered at Barfusserplatz Square called on the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the event’s organizer, to ban Israel's future participation, as well as a boycott for the Eurovision Song Contest. In response to the recent surge in civilian casualties caused by Israel’s heavy attacks on Gaza, demonstrators condemned the violence and urged the world not to remain indifferent to the genocide taking place in Gaza. Carrying Palestinian flags, the protesters chanted anti-Israel slogans in English, German, and French. The protesters then marched through the city center under heavy security. A protestors, Yafa, said that Israel has no place in this contest and just like Russia and Belarus, Israel should have been excluded. The Israeli army has pursued a brutal offensive against Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023, killing more than 53,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children. The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants last November for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza. Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.