Turkish Pianist Dismissed by Migros Due to Gaza Tweets
Published: Saturday, Oct 21st 2023, 15:50
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The Migros has excluded Turkish star pianist Fazil Say from a Swiss concert series due to a tweet. Say had shared a post from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan which attributed the deadly rocket strike at Al-Ahli Hospital in the Gaza Strip to Israel. Say commented that this was a reasonable explanation from Erdogan and that Israeli President Netanyahu should be brought to court. The Migros-Genossenschaftsbund deemed this statement "untenable" and Say was replaced by Swiss pianist Lois Schwizgebel for the four Migros-Classic concerts from 23-26 October in Zurich, Bern, Geneva and Lucerne. Say confirmed the exclusion from Migros on X and wrote that he was for peace and had believed that freedom of opinion was respected in Europe. He left his comments on social media as they were.
The rocket strike at Al-Ahli Hospital in the Gaza Strip resulted in over 400 deaths according to the Islamist Palestinian organization Hamas. Hamas accuses Israel of attacking the hospital while Israel claims it was a misfired rocket from the militant Palestinian organization Islamic Jihad. The UN has called for an international investigation. The day after his first tweet about the rocket strike, Turkish President Erdogan posted a second one which no longer attributed responsibility to Israel.
©Keystone/SDA
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