This demonstration is being held a week after the march against anti-Semitism, followed by 100,000 people in Paris.
Behind a large white banner and without any slogan, several thousand people, including actresses Isabelle Adjani and Emmanuelle Béart, marched in silence on Sunday in Paris for peace in the Middle East and against hatred.
The two actresses were at the head of the procession, 3,600 people according to the police headquarters, which set off under the sun from the square of the Institute of the Arab World (Ima) to symbolically reach the Museum of Art and History of Judaism.
At their side were the actresses Julie Gayet, Ariane Ascaride, the singer Yael Naïm, the journalist Laure Adler, the director Yamina Benguigui and the actress Lubna Azabal, seen recently in “Le bleu du caftan”, at the origin of this initiative.
Culture Minister Rima Abdul Malak mingled with the mostly elderly protesters, some wearing white armbands, to “to stand alongside those who engage (…) in this civil society movement without banners, without slogans, in silence, in dignity”.
“It’s not a march of silence, it’s a march in silence,” declared the minister to AFP.
This demonstration was triggered by a “powerful text”, she recalled, in reference to a platform signed by nearly 600 artists, which calls for “carrying the voice of unity” and not taking a position in the dispute.
“People are there to appease people. They don’t necessarily think the same thing. I fully support this demonstration of unity,” declared Jack Lang, the president of Ima, at the head of the procession.
Wearing a scarf and white hat, Isabelle Adjani held up an example of the book during the parade “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 have opted for absolute neutrality in response to the sound of weapons, the vociferation of extremism,” declared to the daily Libération Lubna Azabal, president of the collective “Another voice”, at the origin of this march.
Reluctant young people
This demonstration is being held a week after the march against anti-Semitism, followed by 100,000 people in Paris.
On Saturday, pro-Palestinian mobilizations to demand an immediate ceasefire in Gaza brought together thousands of demonstrators across France.
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”, summarized on the channel France 5 actress Julie Gayet, also a member of the collective.
“We want 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 emphasized again on RTL.
Lubna Azabal, who also denounces “the injunctions to choose one’s side”, admitted to having struggled to attract young faces in music and cinema who “are afraid of losing” their followers on social networks and “be labeled even within the framework of such a unifying initiative”.
“I don’t want to let hatred win, and that’s precisely the meaning” of this march, for her part declared to the daily Le Parisien 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.
The Israeli military estimates that some 240 people were taken hostage in the Gaza Strip during Hamas’ unprecedented attack on Israeli territory on October 7. This left around 1,200 dead, mainly civilians, according to the Israeli authorities.
In retaliation, Israel relentlessly bombs the Gaza Strip and has been carrying out a ground operation since October 27 with the aim of “wiping out” the Islamist movement in power in the Palestinian territory. These Israeli strikes on Gaza left more than 12,300 dead, including 5,000 children and 3,300 women, according to the Hamas Ministry of Health.
