Anti-Israel activists attack Israeli singer David D’or at Warsaw festival
Anti-Israel activists attacked and splashed red paint on Israeli singer David D’or during a live performance in a Jewish cultural festival in the Polish capital, Warsaw. One of the activists from the anti-Israel group Bas Collective attempted to reach the stage with a Palestinian Authority flag before being removed by local security guards.
D'or was performing a prayer for peace when he was suddenly attacked with blood-like paint.
"In the middle of the prayer, while I was praying for a good year and peace in the world, I closed my eyes, when suddenly I felt a cold spray on my face," D'or recalled the traumatic moment when he was attacked.
"I opened my eyes to see strong red paint, blood-like, on my clothes, on my face, and on the stage and musicians," he continued.
"Red paint stains brought me back to the sights of horror from October 7," the singer added.
Israeli Ambassador to Poland Yaakov Finkelstein condemned the attack while praising D’or for displaying “tremendous strength.”
The Polish festival organizers also condemned the attack on the Israeli singer.
‘“Art and music should connect people, give space for emotions and meetings, and not become an arena of aggression,” the festival organizers wrote in a Facebook post on Monday.
“The form these people chose was hurtful, both to the performer and the audience,” they added.
The Union of Jewish Religious Communities in Poland (ZGWZP) condemned the antisemitic incident and urged local authorities and organizers to secure gatherings and cultural events from “manifestations of incitement to hatred based on nationality, ethnicity, race, or religion.”
The ZGWZP emphasized that the attack on the Israeli singer was only the latest of “brutal acts of hatred against individuals associated with Israel, including athletes, artists, and politicians.”
The anti-Israel group Bas Collective justified its antisemitic attack on D’or by criticizing the singer’s service in the IDF in the 1980s and support for the Israeli military.
“We believe that especially in a time of genocide in Gaza and of famine deliberately caused there by Israel, there is no place for promoting the culture of a perpetrator of genocide, for cooperation with its embassy – which seeks to equate Jewish culture with Israel – nor for inviting artists whose goal is to whitewash this country’s image and justify genocide under the guise of a ‘right to self-defense,’” the radical group claimed.
Military service is mandatory for most Israeli Jews, so D’or’s past military service is not surprising. Israel has strongly rejected the accusations of “genocide” and “famine” in Gaza. Like the vast majority of Israelis, D’or has not justified “genocide” but backed the Jewish state’s legitimate right of self-defense against the genocidal terrorist militia Hamas, which openly calls for Israel’s destruction and the murder of all Jews.
While Poland has a history of Christian-rooted antisemitism, there have been fewer anti-Israel and anti-Jewish incidents in Poland since the Hamas Oct. 7 attack compared to most Western European countries. This is likely due to the fact that Poland has a tiny Muslim minority compared to Western nations, where radicalized Muslim individuals have played leading roles in the surge of antisemitic acts in the past two years.
Last month, Charlotte Korchak, founder of the U.S.-based Jerusalem Education Institute, was verbally attacked for holding an Israeli flag by an anti-Israel activist outside the infamous Nazi extermination camp Auschwitz.
“You are killing children,” the activist claimed, arguing that her friends in Gaza were “forced to leave their homes because of you.”
“You’re not doing this in front of a bunch of Jews outside Auschwitz. Walk away,” Korchak responded with anger to the anti-Israel activist.
The All Israel News Staff is a team of journalists in Israel.
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