Returning to Israel after Eurovision, Noam Bettan calls to ‘be kind to one another’

Landing back in Israel from his second-place finish at last night’s Eurovision, Noam Bettan thanks his fans for their support and nods to the challenges that Israel’s delegation faced this year.

“I know how hard it was to do the Eurovision this year and how many challenges were part of it, but it happened and it happened in the best way I could have asked for,” he tells reporters in a press statement at Ben Gurion Airport.

Bettan thanks the security team and the Shin Bet for “protecting us — no matter what we went through, and you know how much we went through. We felt calm and protected.”

Bettan performed “Michelle” in French, English, and Hebrew on stage at the grand final last night in Vienna, Austria, ultimately finishing in second place, after the jury and public votes were combined.

“Thank you to all the people of Israel for being here for us for the past few months, for supporting us and giving us love that gave us so much strength, you can’t even imagine,” he adds.

“I think yesterday, I personally felt — as I think many in the country did — felt a sense of unity, after a long time when such a thing was missing,” Bettan says. Moving forward, he adds, he hopes all those in Israel can “make the effort to be kind to each other,” to understand one another and not to judge others, and “I’ll try very hard to do so myself as well.”