On the opening night of her MDNA world tour in Tel Aviv, Madonna addressed the audience, explaining there was a reason she chose to start the tour in Israel.

“As you know, the Middle East and the conflicts that occur here, and that have been occurring for thousands of years, they have to stop,” she said. “You can’t be a fan of mine and not want peace in the world.”

She spoke about peace, equality and unity, pointing out that everyone gathered at the concert, including those taking part in her show may be from different, but in essence are all the same.

“There are people from all walks of life here and even in my show. We are all on different paths, but we are all sons and daughters of the universe, and we are all human beings. And whether we are Muslim or Jew, Christian, Buddhist, Atheist, gay, straight, black, white, Asian – we are all human beings … we all bleed the same color. We all want to love and be loved.”

While it’s easy to say we want peace, “it’s another thing to do it,” she said. “If we could all rise above our egos and our titles, and the names of our countries, and the names of our religions, if we can rise above all of that and treat everyone around us, every human being with dignity and respect, then we are on the road to peace.”

She continued saying: “No matter how many laws we change, no matter how many percentages of land we give back, no matter how many talks, no matter how many wars, if we don’t treat every human being with dignity and respect, we will never have peace. So start today. Start now each and every one of you. You are the future. We are the future, and if there is peace here in the Middle East, then there can be peace in the whole world. Please remember this.”

See the whole speech in the video below taken by a fan at the concert: