Interview. Journalist Valérie Abécassis dedicates “Place des otages” in Deauville

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Journalist, Valérie Abécassis dedication, November 9 and 10, 2024, in Deauville (Calvados), Hostages Square. A work where she tells about Israel, since October 7, 2023. Meeting.

“These images will remain forever engraved in my memory”

You notably worked for ELLE before sharing yourself between Paris and Tel Aviv where you host the magazine “Culture” on the I24 channel. Until October 7, 2023, when your life, like that of many Israelis, was turned upside down…

Yes, before October 7, I actually hosted a culture newspaper aimed at a French-speaking audience in which I talked about artistic news in France and elsewhere in the world.

On October 6, 2023, part of the program was devoted to the attack perpetrated in 1974 in Kyriat Shmona, a town located in the north of Israel, which cost the lives of around twenty people. At 7 p.m., I had a young woman on set, named Iris, whose mother and two brothers had been murdered. During the show, I wondered how anyone could survive after such a tragedy. And then, at the end of the show, we said to ourselves that such an event could no longer happen. The next day, Hamas attacked Israel.

From that moment on, was your life turned upside down?

Yes, absolutely. As the channel I worked for found itself in “breaking news”, I immediately became a war reporter. A new job: I had never done that. I adapted. All day long, I found myself on the ground. I went to the morgue, to the devastated kibbutzim. These images will remain forever engraved in my memory. I was suffocated by this distress and this madness. So I started a book.

This book is a testimony…

This is not a book about war. This is not an activist book. For all the people who weren’t there, this is a book that testifies to what I saw, what we experienced. There are several chapters. I’m talking about survivors, women obviously, I’m talking about the fact that this country is “almost” young – created less than 100 years ago – almost old – with a history dating back 4,000 years – almost defined, almost… I’m talking about everything with honesty.

Personally, I was in denial for a long time, it took me a long time to realize what had really happened, to appreciate the horror. There was a form of blindness. But it’s terrible to say, there are also funny moments in this book. In fact, you have to read it… I tell stories less well than I write. This book was also selected for the Renaudot 2024 prize, in the Essay category.

“My way of seeing things, of understanding life, has been profoundly changed”

This book begins on October 7 and ends in June with the release of Noa Argamani, Israeli hostage. Why stop at this point when there are still hostages and the war continues?

I needed to stop. I couldn’t take it anymore. It was too much. Eventually we go crazy. I thought the release of Noa Argamani and three other Hamas hostages was the right moment. This book could have been endless… However, it’s not because I’m no longer writing that I’m not following what’s happening.

My way of seeing things, of understanding life, has been profoundly changed. I can no longer not think about what I saw, I can no longer not think about the hostages and their families. The sight of a detail can immediately take me back to the children killed, the people massacred.

Today you returned to Paris, how do you feel?

Quite honestly, I’m lost, confused. I don’t know where I am anymore. When I returned to Paris in July, at the time of the Olympic Games, there was a special atmosphere, a kind of harmony. Everything seemed beautiful to me in Paris. And then, little by little, I realize that things aren’t very interesting. And then, it’s also horrible what’s happening here with the rise of anti-Semitism. Of course, the guys are arrested, convicted, but still. Everything is mixed up in my head. Everything is complicated.

How do you see the future?

For the moment, I am in Paris. I don’t know where I will be in a while. I don’t know where I am. I have lost my carefree attitude but I want to remain resolutely optimistic. I want to believe in a ceasefire.

In my opinion, the only way to put an end to terrorism is to recognize a Palestinian authority. But of course, it’s not for tomorrow, it will probably take a long time.

Dedication of Hostages Square (Éditions Cerf), Saturday and Sunday, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., market bookstore, in Deauville.

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