Paris: the world of culture marched for union and peace in silence

600 personalities from the world of culture are behind this “silent march”.

This demonstration is being held a week after the march against anti-Semitism, followed by 100,000 people in Paris.

3,600 people this Sunday, November 19 in Paris for the “silent” and “apolitical” march for peace in the Middle East. Among them, the actress Isabelle Adjani, Maxime Le Forestier, the former Minister of Culture Jack Lang, Julie Gayet, Juliette Binoche, Marion Cotillard, Claude Lelouch, or even Muriel Robin, the writer Marek Halter etc. The procession left the Institute of the Arab World and will head towards the Museum of Jewish Art and History.

The objective is clear: to demand union and peace between the Israeli and Palestinian peoples and above all to reduce the tensions of recent weeks in France. Organizers specifically asked participants not to chant political slogans.

Behind a large white banner and without any slogan, several thousand people marched in silence on Sunday in Paris for peace in the Middle East and against hatred.

At their side were Ariane Ascaride, the singer Yael Naïm, the journalist Laure Adler, the director Yamina Benguigui and the actress Lubna Azabal, recently seen in « Le bleu du caftan », at the origin of this initiative.

Culture Minister Rima Abdul Malak joined the demonstrators, most of them elderly, some wearing white armbands, to « stand alongside those who are engaged (…) in this civil society movement without banner, without slogan, in silence, in dignity ».

This demonstration was triggered by a « powerful text », she recalled, the Minister of Culture Rima Abdul Malak, in reference to a forum signed by nearly 600 artists, which calls to « carry the voice of unity » and not to take a position in the conflict.

“It is not a march of silence, it is a march in silence,” declared the minister to the press like the former Minister of Culture Jack Lang, “People are there to appease. They do not think necessarily the same thing. I fully support this demonstration of unity,” declared Jack Lang, the president of Ima, at the head of the procession.

“We opted for absolute neutrality in response to the noise of weapons, to the vociferation of extremism,” declared to the daily Libération Lubna Azabal, president of the collective “Another voice”, at the origin of this march.

Criticized for their silence in the face of the Israel-Hamas war, cultural figures chose to demonstrate « in silence », « another way of expressing ourselves because we can’t do it », summed up the actress. Julie Gayet, member of the collective. “We have wanted to be able to express our sadness and our astonishment since October 7. The idea is to have another voice, not to choose a side to hate,” she stressed the actress.

The actress and director Agnès Jaoui, who lost two members of her family in the attacks perpetrated on October 7 in Israel and without news of three relatives taken hostage, declared: « I do not want to let hatred prevail, and it This is precisely the meaning of this march.

Wearing a scarf and white hat, Isabelle Adjani held up during the parade an example of the book “Planet at war, planet at peace” with a dove and a young woman behind the barbed wire on the cover. She refused to speak.

“We don’t want to be in one camp or another, we want to be in the peace camp, that is to say in the camp of dialogue and discussion,” explains Charles Berling, actor and director. French scene: « I believe that it is vital today to think with nuances, to think simply and to continue talking to each other no matter who we are in the world. Everyone has mistakes, everyone has reasons, but it is absolutely necessary that people, who believe in moderation, who believe in peace, come forward. »

“Since October 7, 2023, horror and suffering have been tearing Palestinians and Israelis apart according to a monstrous mathematics that has already lasted for a long time,” we read in the press release from “Une Autre Voix, Ensemble”, the collective behind this walk. This fratricidal war affects us all, and whatever our reasons or affinities on either side of the wall, we hope that it will end and that the two peoples can finally live in peace. Two peoples taken hostage by policies that we cannot control, which are beyond our control and of which we are powerless witnesses.”

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