“The Gates of Gaza”, the story of a family surviving the attacks of October 7, and the return of Manu Chao

In Tout Public on Friday September 20, Amir Tibon talks about his account of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the Hamas attack of October 7, and the illustrator Gaston, author of the comic strip “De la Mano à Manu Chao” on the life of the Franco-Spanish singer and his new album “Viva Tu”.

As the conflict in the Middle East enters a new phase, with the northern front with Hezbollah seemingly the current priority for Israel, the book The Gates of Gaza by Amir Tibon is a valuable document for understanding the evolution of the situation in the region since the attack by the Islamist movement Hamas against Israel on October 7, 2023.

When the Hamas attacks took place, the author and his family, residents of the Nahal Oz kibbutz, were among the first to be hit. Although they were already used to missile warnings, they understood on this day of October 7 that Hamas terrorists had invaded their community, and that this day would be different from all the others they had known. Amir Tibon looks back on recent events between Israel and Hezbollah, the question of Zionism, the military legitimacy of Israel’s response to Hamas in Gaza, and Netanyahu’s position on the release of the Israeli hostages.

“We expected an escalation, a conflict with Hezbollah. The day after the Hamas attack. (…) The conflict was heating up more and more, gradually.”

Manu Chao, emblem of alter-globalization, increasingly withdrawn in recent years, releases his fifth album after 15 years Long live you. The cartoonist Gaston, author of the comic strip From La Mano to Manu Chaohad the opportunity to be the star’s traveling companion during his modest tour during the summer of 2023. Like the concert that the singer gave in Vitry-sur-Seine on Tuesday September 17, 2024, he now prefers acoustic concerts, with a sober scenography, rather than “grandiose big stadiums” and an enormous technical team, Gaston, who has been following him for years, tells us. Concerts that bring together all generations, and an audience that says a lot about the evolution of the singer and his career: “There is [un public de] 40, 60 years old, it’s a bit like the heart. (…) 20, 30 years ago, there were lots of new generation hippies who arrived and discovered. But one thing that’s funny is that before Manu was considered a punk from the alternative scene. Today, he’s a hippie from the alter-globalization scene.”

A free and secretive artist, whom Gaston’s comic strip seeks to depict as faithfully as possible.

A program with the participation of Yann Bertrand, journalist in the culture department of franceinfo.