”No conflict can be resolved by causing pain to another human being”

Tonight’s show was not only the kick off of a new Madonna tour, but also a chance for a call for peace from the Ramat Gan stadium stage.

Here is what Madonna told the 33,000 audience in the middle of her show:

“I chose to start my world tour in Israel for a very specific and important reason. As you know, the Middle East and all the conflict that occurs here and have been occurring for thousands of years, they have to stop. You can’t be a fan of mine and not want peace in the world.”

“So start today, every single one of you, if there is peace here in the Middle East, there can be peace in the whole world.”

As previously reported, the day before the show Madonna met with members of the Palestinian-Israeli Peace NGO Forum and invited 600 of them to her concert.

“We spoke to her for a few minutes and we asked if she would say anything about peace,” Yariv Oppenheimer of Peace Now, a member of the forum, told the AFP.

“She told us: ‘I will say much more than a word about it.'”

During the concert tonight Madonna paid tribute to those who seek to help ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and said:

“There are some very important NGOs which are representing both Palestine and Israel over here. It’s easy to say: ‘I want peace in the world,’ but it’s another thing to do it. If we can all rise above our egos and our titles and the names of our countries and our religions – and treat everyone around us with dignity and respect, then we are on the road to peace,” she said. No conflict can ever be resolved by causing pain to another human being.”