ISTANBUL 

Palestinian artist Marwan Abdelhamid, known as Saint Levant, used his concert on Friday in Istanbul to deliver a forceful message about the situation in the Gaza Strip.

He told the crowd between songs that sometimes he finds it difficult to go onstage to celebrate his culture, share his music and dance “while our brothers and sisters in Gaza have been undergoing a brutal, brutal genocide for the past three years.”

He rejected descriptions of the situation as a war or a conflict between two sides, instead describing it as genocide.

“This did not start on Oct. 7,” he said. “This is 75 years and more of military occupation.”

"I think now the world has finally, finally understood that Palestinians were not born with a hatred. I think the world has finally understood that we are a population living under occupation," he said. “We demand not only justice, but we demand freedom. And we demand it every single day.”

Comparing the situation in Palestine to apartheid-era South Africa, Saint Levant said the example shows “freedom is achievable.”

“Freedom is on the horizon for Palestinians. And our children will be able to take a plane from Istanbul to Jerusalem,” he added.

Concertgoers wore Palestinian keffiyehs, waved flags and chanted: “Free Palestine.”