The Israeli-Argentinian conductor Daniel Barenboim described the Hamas attack against “the Israeli civilian population” on Saturday as a “scandalous crime”, while condemning the siege of the Gaza Strip as a “violation of human rights”. in a press release. “The attack by Hamas on the Israeli civilian population is a scandalous crime that I strongly condemn,” he wrote in this text, posted in English on several social networks.
According to him, “the scale of this human tragedy” is not only measured “in the lives lost but also in the hostage-taking, the destroyed houses, the devastated communities”. The maestro also condemns the “Israeli siege of Gaza”, a “collective punishment which is a violation of human rights”.
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Daniel Barenboïm has long been known for his commitment to peace, notably through the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra founded in 1999 with the Palestinian-American thinker Edward Saïd. This group brings together Israeli, Egyptian, Iranian, Jordanian, Lebanese and Palestinian musicians.
“Edward Said (died in 2003, editor’s note) and I always believed that the only path to peace between Israel and Palestine” was based on “humanism, justice, equality and an end to the occupation, more than “a military action, and I have this conviction even more today than ever.” “In these difficult times, (…) I bring my solidarity to the victims and their families,” he concluded.
New Israeli raids hit the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, partly transformed into a field of ruins, in response to the bloody attack launched on Saturday by Hamas, which traumatized Israel and triggered a war in which the dead already numbered in the thousands. The Gaza Strip, a poor and cramped enclave with 2.3 million inhabitants, is now under siege. Israel has cut off water, electricity and food supplies there.