“I didn’t have the words.” Patrick Bruel shared on his Instagram account on November 2 the story of his meeting with some families of the 240 hostages held in Gaza by Hamas since October 7.
“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 wrote. The hostages and their families have “always worked for dialogue, rapprochement and aid with their Palestinian neighbors,” the artist also reported. “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 from anywhere, of any faith, is a mother who cries,” he continued.
Patrick Bruel also mentioned that the Hamas attack against Israel “could have happened in any country” and that the terrorist act of October 7 is similar to “that of Bataclan, Charlie, Westminster, Brussels , Toulouse, Mumbai, or September 11. Of Jewish faith, the songwriter had already reacted almost a month ago to the offensive by the armed group which left 1,400 dead on the Israeli side. Patrick Bruel notably reported “being horrified by these images of terror and blind hatred” and had expressed his support to “Israeli civilians confronted with terrorist violence”.
Patrick Bruel also spoke with the families of the Hamas hostages about “uninhibited anti-Semitism which is only one of the symptoms of rising xenophobia, hatred of differences and a threat to republics and democracies around the world.” . The artist also declared “that this act had to be decorrelated from the political situation”.
For almost a month, 1,040 anti-Semitic incidents have been recorded in France, reports Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin. 486 people were arrested for these reasons.