Irish rock star Bono has called for Israel to be “released from Benjamin Netanyahu and far-right fundamentalists” during an impassioned speech at the Ivors music awards ceremony.
The U2 frontman spoke out against the Israeli prime minister for the first time since the war in Gaza broke out in October 2023, as western leaders criticised Netanyahu over the renewed offensive in Palestine.
Bono, real name Paul Hewson, introduced a pared-back performance of the band’s song “Sunday Bloody Sunday” by explaining how “believing in the possibility of peace was then and is now a rebellious act, and some would say a ridiculous one, to believe peace was attainable between your country and ours, between our country and itself...
“Peace creates possibilities in the most intractable situations. Lord knows there’s a few of them out there right now.”
The musician, who received the Peace Summit Award at the 2008 Nobel Peace Laureates Summit, continued: “Hamas, release the hostages. Stop the war. Israel, be released from Benjamin Netanyahu and far-right fundamentalists that twist your sacred texts.
“All of you protect our aid workers, they are the best of us.”
Released in 1983, “Sunday Bloody Sunday” references the 1972 Bloody Sunday shootings in Londonderry, in which members of the British army’s parachute regiment opened fire at civil rights demonstrators.
At the Ivors, held on Thursday 22 May, U2 became the first Irish songwriters to be awarded an academy fellowship, which was presented to them by pop star Ed Sheeran.
Bono’s speech came as, earlier this week, Netanyahu accused British prime minister Sir Keir Starmer, along with French president Emmanuel Macron and Canadian PM Mark Carney, of “emboldening Hamas to continue fighting forever”.
On Monday (19 May), the UK, French and Canadian governments said in a joint statement that they were committed to recognising a Palestinian state “as a contribution to achieving a two-state solution” to the war.
In response, Netanyahu said Hamas had thanked Starmer, Macron and Carney for demanding that Israel end its war in Gaza immediately, claiming that the three had shown they effectively wanted Hamas to remain in power.
“I say to President Macron, Prime Minister Carney and Prime Minister Starmer: When mass murderers, rapists, baby killers and kidnappers thank you, you're on the wrong side of justice,” he said in a video on social media. “You’re on the wrong side of humanity and you’re on the wrong side of history.”
His statement came after young Israeli diplomat couple Yaron Lischinsky, 30, and Sarah Milgrim, 26, were shot dead in Washington DC as they left an event at the Capital Jewish Museum.
Suspect Elias Rodriguez has been charged with murder. The 30-year-old told officers from the Metropolitan Police Department when he was arrested at the scene: “I did it for Palestine, I did it for Gaza, I am unarmed,” according to an arrest affidavit seen by The Independent.
Israel's retaliatory war in Gaza following the 7 October attacks by Hamas has killed more than 53,000 people, mostly women and children, according to local health authorities, whose count does not differentiate between combatants and civilians.
The fighting has displaced 90 per cent of the territory’s population of about two million and sparked a hunger crisis due to Israel’s blockade.
Nearly half a million Palestinians are in “catastrophic” levels of hunger, meaning they face possible starvation, food security experts said in a report on Monday (17 May), while another million are at “emergency” levels of hunger.
