13.11.2026 15:41
Dr. Kemal Sağlam, Assistant Professor in the Department of Visual Communication Design at Artvin Çoruh University, staged a performance titled "Gaza Captivity" on Kahramanmaraş Avenue in Trabzon. Sağlam, who suspended himself from a crane that his friend wearing a Netanyahu mask had climbed, stated that he wanted to draw attention to pediatrician Hussam Abu Safiya, who he said had been held in an Israeli prison for 685 days.
Kemal Sağlam, Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Art and Design of Artvin Çoruh University, carried out a protest with his performance titled 'Gaza Captivity' to protest Israel's attacks on Gaza. Sağlam, who suspended himself from a crane that his friend wearing the mask of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had climbed, said, 'In order to raise awareness, I tried to show with my art action that Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya's life is hanging in the balance, that he has neither been killed nor released.'
'MY ONLY CRIME IS BEING A DOCTOR IN GAZA'
Kemal Sağlam, Assistant Professor in the Department of Visual Communication Design at Artvin Çoruh University, organized a protest on Kahramanmaraş Street in Trabzon to draw attention to the massacres taking place in Gaza. In the 'Gaza Captivity' performance, which he carried out by hanging himself from a crane that his friend wearing the mask of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had climbed, in order to tell about the ongoing genocide in Gaza and to react to the imprisonment of pediatrician Hussam Abu Safiya in Israeli prisons, he chanted, 'I did nothing; my only crime is being a doctor in Gaza. Israel is not satisfied with blood; O humanity, save me.'
'GAZA IS EXPERIENCING ITS MOST PAINFUL DAYS'
Sağlam stated that he aimed to raise awareness for the painful days experienced in Gaza and said, 'Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya has been tortured in an Israeli prison for 685 days. He is left hungry and thirsty; they do not give him his medicines. They have broken his ribs with a hammer; every day they set rats and dogs on him. It is as if his life is hanging in the balance. They neither kill him nor release him. With the extension of his sentence by 6 months, he will stay in prison longer. I carried out the action to raise awareness of this and to speak out about the flood disaster in Gaza, in which 71 tents were destroyed and people perished, children crying, babies dying from the cold, and mothers wailing. Gaza will surely be free. We also need to contribute to this. We must do everything we can for Gaza to be free. They do not even leave the containers. Israel has placed Gaza under blockade. It neither releases the prisoners nor allows aid to be delivered to civilians in Gaza. Gaza is experiencing its most painful days. I, too, tried to show with my art action, in order to raise awareness, that Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya's life is hanging in the balance, that he has neither been killed nor released.'