French actress and head of the Cannes movie competition jury Juliette Binoche paid tribute to Gaza photojournalist Fatima Hassouna, slain by Israel, on the opening ceremony on Tuesday, saying she “should have been with us tonight.”
Hassouna, who was killed in an Israeli air strike final month, is the topic of the documentary “Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk”, that can premiere in Cannes on Thursday by exiled Iranian director Sepideh Farsi.
“In every region of the world artists are fighting every day and make resistance into art,” she informed a VIP crowd of actors and administrators on the French Riviera.
“On April 16, at dawn in Gaza, 25-year-old photojournalist Fatima Hassouna and 10 relatives were killed by a missile that hit their home.”
She added: “The day earlier than she had discovered that the movie she options in had been chosen for Cannes.
“She should have been here tonight with us.”
More than 380 movie figures together with “Schindler’s List” actor Ralph Fiennes and Richard Gere denounced “genocide” in Gaza in an open letter launched Monday by pro-Palestinian activists on the eve of the Cannes movie competition.
Binoche was initially stated by organizers to have signed the petition however her identify was not on the ultimate printed record.
Speaking to reporters earlier Tuesday, she stated “you’ll maybe understand it a little later”, hinting that she may make an announcement about Hassouna on the opening ceremony.
In her remarks, Binoche additionally referenced “the (Israeli) hostages of October 7 and all hostages, prisoners, the drowned who endure terror and die with a terrible feeling of abandonment and indifference.”
Israel launched a full-blown assault on Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023 in retaliation to an assault by Hamas on southern Israel, which resulted within the deaths of 1,218 individuals, principally civilians, in response to an AFP tally primarily based on official knowledge.
In addition, the group took 251 individuals hostage.
The Israeli offensive has killed not less than 52,908 individuals in Gaza, principally civilians, in response to knowledge from the Gaza well being ministry, which is taken into account dependable by the U.N.
Media freedom group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has stated the Israeli navy is finishing up a “massacre” of Palestinian journalists, with almost 200 killed.
Source: www.dailysabah.com