Zaho de Sagazan calls on Emmanuel Macron on Gaza: "You have the power to act. Have the courage and dignity to do so."
By News Service
Singer Zaho de Sagazan at the closing ceremony of the Paris Olympics on August 11, 2024. MAJA HITIJ / GETTY IMAGES VIA AFP
A rare, clear, and courageous stance. In an Instagram post published Saturday, July 26, singer Zaho de Sagazan challenged Emmanuel Macron on the situation in Gaza . The post, liked more than 90,000 times by midday Sunday, called for "strong and immediate action" against Israel's "endless massacre" of Palestinians.
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"Today, I can no longer be content with warming hearts without denouncing what is collapsing around us ," begins the singer who participated in a charity concert in July 2024 for humanitarian aid in Gaza. "I can no longer sing about the beauty of life without naming the injustice that we allow to take hold."
In this long text, the artist with four Victoires de la Musique awards denounces the atrocities in Gaza and the prevailing discourse of the world which "looks the other way" , or "worse: it justifies, relativizes, temporizes" . "On October 7 [2023], Israeli civilians were victims of atrocious crimes committed by Hamas. No one denies it, nothing justifies it ," she writes. But this violence cannot serve as an alibi for an endless massacre."
Criticizing the Israeli military strategy, whose attacks "destroy schools, hospitals, civilian neighborhoods" and kill women and children, she also protests against the accusations of anti-Semitism that emerge each time a voice is raised to denounce "these horrors." "We cannot continue to disqualify every critical word with an unjust accusation ," she says. " It is not a question of attacking a people, nor a religion, but of denouncing the genocidal policy of Netanyahu [Benyamin, the Israeli Prime Minister, editor's note] and those who allow it to happen."
"We are not here to embellish inaction."The end of the publication is presented in the form of a direct address to "Mr. President." The 25-year-old artist, who opened the Closing Ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games , first notes that he has repeatedly used her hit "The Symphony of Lightning" in his communications - an ode to sensitivity in which she tried to "make beautiful what was not." "But while you celebrate "light," sensitivity, compassion, under the clouds, a few kilometers from our home, children are living in hell," she stings. She then warns the head of state:
"I say this to you with gravity: do not use the words of artists if you do not act for the lives they defend. Do not decorate your communication with my songs if, on the other hand, you allow a massacre to take place. We are not here to embellish inaction."
Zaho de Sagazan concludes her text by detailing the expected actions: demanding a total ceasefire, ending military cooperation ( France continues to sell military equipment to Israel ), ensuring the delivery of humanitarian aid blocked by the Hebrew state, sanctioning violations of international law and supporting investigations into war crimes. "Recognizing the Palestinian state (sic) is a necessary symbolic gesture, but it is not enough," she warns, while the president announced that he would do so in September .
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