Israeli singer David D’or was splashed with red paint by anti-Israel activists during a performance for a Jewish cultural festival, according to the artist.
While D’or was singing on the Warsaw national opera house stage in the final concert of the Singer Warsaw Festival on Sunday, two activists hurled paint at the performers and attempted to climb onto the stage with a Palestinian flag.
D’or said that he continued to sing and pray to ease the concerns of the crowd, which joined in the singing.
Israeli Ambassador to Poland Yaakov Finkelstein praised D’or for pulling himself together and continuing the show, stating on X/Twitter that he demonstrated “tremendous strength.”
Anti-Israel group Bas Collective said that two people were arrested and that it was attempting to hold solidarity rallies for the activists.
D’or had been in the middle of a prayer for peace when he was splashed with the blood-like paint, which he said on Facebook brought him back to the October 7 massacre. One of the violinists feared that acid had been flung on them.
The festival organizers said on Facebook that difficult topics should be expressed in a manner that didn’t violate the dignity of others and that music should be a space of freedom.
“Art and music should connect people, give space for emotions and meetings, and not become an arena of aggression,” the festival said on Monday. “The form these people chose was hurtful, both to the performer and the audience.”
The Union of Jewish Religious Communities in Poland (ZGWZP) in a Monday statement called on organizers of events and local authorities to ensure that gatherings were protected from “manifestations of incitement to hatred based on nationality, ethnicity, race, or religion.”
Pro-Palestinian group criticizes D'or, who served in the IDF in the 1980s
The Bas Collective, in a Monday Instagram post, lambasted D’or for serving in the IDF in the 1980s and for praising the Israeli military. The collective also noted that the festival was sponsored by the Israeli embassy in Poland, accusing the diplomatic mission of spreading propaganda.
“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,’” said the anti-Israel group.
ZGWZP said that the attack on D’or came as part of a spate of “brutal acts of hatred against individuals associated with Israel, including athletes, artists, and politicians” in Poland.