Let change come to the world: Stop campaign against Gaza

I am an activist artist. I cannot stand any violence.

I hear more than one thousand people were killed in Gaza. I want to stop this tragedy as soon as possible. I never make the 21st century a century of genocide again.

Last December I first visited John Lennon's Museum in Saitama prefecture, Japan, where I tied my wish card to Yoko's "Wish Tree" to make the world a peaceful place. However, it was ironically just the day after my first visit to John Lennon's Museum that Israel launched its campaign against Gaza.

Soon international condemnation widely spread. Some compare the current event in Gaza with the Irish conflicts. Others point out asymmetry between Israel and Palestine. Innumerable people have spontaneously started joining demos to stop the violence.

Last Saturday I joined a demo held in Tokyo. To express my wish I made this piece to correspond with a French film maker Jean-Luc Godard's film Our Music, because the film told me a possibility to cut an endless scene of hatred and wail in this world.

The woman, named Orga, is a heroin in Our Music. She is a Jewish French originally born in Russia. To stop Israel's endless attacks and endless retaliatory acts of terrorism she uses terrorism by herself. She does it by packing many books in her bag instead of bombs.

In Tokyo we gathered in Shiba park below Tokyo Tower. A person was playing guitar and singing John Lennon's "Imagine." Church near to Tokyo Tower encouraged us by ringing bells and waving their hands. Suddenly I experienced strange flashbacks of the demo in 2003 to protest against the Iraq War. Because every details are too similar.

What direction is the world heading?

Where am I ?

What shall I do?

Back in 1969 to protest against the Vietnam War John and Yoko transformed their honey moon into "Bed-In performance" and displayed a big message on the wall along the street.

"WAR IS OVER! if you want it"

Now it's my turn.

I speak out loudly.

"ALTERNATIVE WORLD IS HERE! WHETHER YOU WANT IT OR NOT"

Let change come to the whole world. Thank you.

(The original speech was given on 15 January 2009)