“We dreamed of peace all together”: Patrick Bruel recounts his meeting with families of Hamas hostages

2023-11-05 05:34:01

He describes a “shattering” exchange. Singer Patrick Bruel recounted on Thursday on his Instagram account his meeting the day before with families of some of the 241 hostages held in Gaza by Hamas. “I didn’t have the words; and then they spoke, told, with so much dignity,” writes the artist. “I tried to save my tears for later, after theirs, after their smiles, after a few notes, after a deep and nuanced discussion with magnificent people, people of peace,” he continues.

Himself of Jewish faith, Patrick Bruel had already reacted to the bloody attack launched by Hamas against Israel on October 7 and which left 1,400 dead on the Israeli side. “Horrified by these images of terror and blind hatred,” he wrote on Instagram, sending his “support for Israeli civilians facing terrorist violence.”

The hostages and their families have always “worked for dialogue, rapprochement and aid with their Palestinian neighbors”, also affirmed Patrick Bruel on Thursday. “Even after the massacres perpetrated by Hamas on October 7: the atrocities, the kidnappings, the destruction of an entire life and despite their immense pain and their unbearable wait, they know that a child who falls is a child who falls and that “a mother who cries, whether she is from anywhere, of any faith, is a mother who cries,” he adds, while the Israeli response in the Gaza Strip has caused nearly 9,500 dead, including 3,900 children, the Hamas Ministry of Health announced on Saturday.

“Uninhibited anti-Semitism”

“We said that it was necessary to uncorrelate this act from the political situation,” also relates the artist, who says he discussed with the families “this uninhibited anti-Semitism which is only one of the symptoms of rising xenophobia, ‘a hatred of differences and a threat to republics and democracies around the world.’

Since October 7, “819 anti-Semitic acts” have been recorded in France and “414” people have been arrested, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said on Tuesday. On Saturday, a Jewish woman was also stabbed at her home in the Lyon metropolis, an attack for which an “anti-Semitic motive” is suspected, according to the prosecution.

“There were silences… We looked at the posters with the photos of their loved ones. And then we sang. Time has stopped,” says Patrick Bruel on Instagram. “We all dreamed of peace,” he concludes. We said to ourselves that we would see each other again soon around a large table of 250 people.”