BASEL, Switzerland (Dispatches) – 
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators clashed with riot police in Basel as the Swiss city hosted the Eurovision Song Contest, AFP journalists at the scene witnessed.
Protesters demonstrating against the Zionist regime’s participation in the contest while it ramps up its war in Gaza clashed briefly with police in the center of the city shortly before Israel’s Eurovision entrant Yuval Raphael took to the stage at the St. Jakobshalle venue across town.
Blows were exchanged and police used tear gas and rolled in a water cannon truck as they strived to block demonstrators from marching through the center of the northern Swiss city, thronging with Eurovision fans.
According to Swiss news agency Keystone-ATS, the confrontation began when police intervened to stop an altercation after two men rushed toward the protesters waving the Zionist regime’s flags.
Amid a sea of Palestinian flags, hundreds of demonstrators, many wearing Palestinian keffiyeh scarves, carried signs stating: “No Music for Murder,” “Stop Genocide,” and “Singing while Gaza Burns.”
Some of the protesters burned giant Zionist regime and U.S. flags, while others set off red and green smoke in the air.
One woman, her face smeared with red, cradled a seemingly bloody bundle representing the children dying in the war raging in the Gaza Strip as police in riot gear looked on.
At a time when the Zionist regime is dramatically ramping up the brutal war in Gaza, the protesters were demonstrating against the participation of the Israeli act.