Matisyahu during his recent interview with Newsweek magazine, He revealed that he wants to see a time when Jews return to the Middle East. He also expressed his desire to see the Jews destroyed by terrorists, Hamas, or people who believe that Israel does not exist:
“I would like to see any terrorist, any Hamas, any person who believes that Israel has no right to exist or that the Jews have no right to exist, I would like Israel to destroy these people.”
he added:
“Then I would like to see some kind of new world emerge in Gaza where Jews can return to the Middle East where we can return to the synagogues, where our ancestors were and we can pray together.”
The 44-year-old Pennsylvania-born musician is a practicing Hasidic Jew and has been public with his religious beliefs.
His beliefs have also influenced his music, including his upcoming EP, fire contract, It is scheduled for release in February 2024.
What does Matisyahu say about the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian crisis?
As an observant Jew, Matisyahu has been an ardent supporter of Israel amid the Israeli-Palestinian crisis. During a recent Zoom interview call with The Messenger, Matisyahu said:
“I need to say something, I need to talk. It's a DNA thing, when you feel intuitively or even subconsciously that the continuity of your DNA is in danger. It's as if, well, there are people who want to kill us; there are people who hate us.” “
Last month, the artist published a message she addressed to the Jewish people. He urged them to speak out against Hamas and anti-Semitism:
“One day in the not-too-distant future, when hindsight is stronger than hatred, October 7 will be remembered as the worst pogrom against the Jewish people since the Holocaust.”
In his Instagram post, he also said that the following weeks and months will be remembered as a dark time in history when Jewish people were attacked, threatened, blamed, intimidated, silenced and ignored.
His post was attacked by people online with some users commenting and calling him a “genocide sympathiser” and a terrorist.
While speaking with Newsweek, Matisyahu revealed that the theme across the five-track EP is “resilience” in the face of adversity. He said his new music represents fire and “the flame that consumes you.” To him, it was a flame; His battles with anger, drugs, isolation, alcohol, the re-evaluation of his faith, the collapse of his marriage, and the October 7 attacks carried out by Hamas in Israel.
He also revealed that the music represents “the continuation of the Jewish people and how we must not let our fires go out and not burn everything else down in the process.”
