An apparent plot by left-wing activists to attack and harass Israeli attendees at an upcoming music festival in Portugal was exposed by a Jewish artist who was mistakenly added to their WhatsApp group chat. 

The woman, known under the alias Sarah, detailed the group’s harrowing scheme during an interview with an Israeli broadcaster, KAN News, on Monday. She said that she was added to the chat because of her work as an artist, but believes that the fellow members didn’t know she is Jewish. 

Sarah soon realized that the group was planning to “infiltrate” Portugal’s Boom Festival, a week-long international music and arts festival that’s held in July, because it’s known to attract Israeli soldiers who are celebrating the end of their service.

The group’s planning efforts “started off as quite a mess, but then they started to organize themselves,” she told KAN News. “What started off with just silly ideas then started to become plans. And as you can see, it’s truly sinister.” The group chat was titled “Left wing argument.” 

In screenshots of the chat that Sarah shared with KAN, one member offers to the group a twisted plan to give Israeli attendees “a taste of their own medicine” by setting their tents on fire and giving them liquid poison. 

“Wake them up and let them know that they are getting a humanitarian warning to leave their tents, make sure they are at a safe(ish) distance away and then torch their tent,” the chat group member wrote. “I’d let them know that I am the most moral arsonist in the world and then give them the strychnine drop to cheer them up.” Strychnine is a strong poison that’s typically used as a pesticide. Ingestion by humans can result in death. 

Another user then responds: “Oh c’mon, strychnine in their acid is not dismemberment of babies … they are all former or current IOF after all … what’s a little strychnine to people who have torn babies to shreds while wearing their mother’s stolen underwear.” IOF is an acronym for the Israel Offensive Forces, a moniker for the Israel Defense Forces used by anti-Israel activists. 

Sarah also said that she joined phone calls during which the group discussed even “worse” plans against Israelis. “Plans to defecate on Israelis tents, plans to urinate in their food, plans to set their tents on fire, plans to put bad substances inside other substances they may take. Plans to make them feel uncomfortable, plans to attack,” she said. 

Sarah told Israeli reporters that she was “absolutely appalled” by their “vile, racist, actually criminal plans” to target Israelis, particularly after Hamas’s massacre at the Nova Festival on October 7, 2023. 

Sarah approached the festival’s organizers about the planned anti-Israel attacks but said that “nothing has been done about it.” She added that she spoke to police but was not taken seriously. 

She then decided to take matters into her own hands, issuing warnings to the “4,000 Israelis that I know are coming to be on that dance floor,” telling them that “they need to be careful, and know there is a plan to hurt them.” 

Organizers of the 2025 Boom Festival have not yet responded to the Sun’s request for comment.