Key points
- Band calls for humanitarian aid into Gaza urgently
- Bono criticises Netanyahu’s actions, backs two-state solution
- All members call for ceasefire and civilian protection
ISLAMABAD: The iconic Irish band U2, known for their vocal advocacy on global issues, have now expressed their stance on the ongoing conflict in Gaza.
Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton, and Larry Mullen Jr took to their official website to share statements denouncing the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October 2023. They voiced support for the safe return of the remaining Israeli hostages and urged for humanitarian aid to reach Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.
“Everyone has long been horrified by what is unfolding in Gaza – but the blocking of humanitarian aid and now plans for a military takeover of Gaza City has taken the conflict into uncharted territory,” reads a statement on their website. “We are not experts in the politics of the region, but we want our audience to know where we each stand.”
Personal statement
In his personal statement, Bono wrote: “Apart from the attack on the Nova music festival on October 7th, which felt like it happened while U2 were on stage at Sphere Las Vegas, I have generally tried to stay out of the politics of the Middle East.”
“This was not humility, more uncertainty in the face of obvious complexity,” he continued. “I have over recent months written about the war in Gaza in The Atlantic and spoken about it in The Observer, but I circled the subject.”
Bono explained that, as “a cofounder of the ONE Campaign, which tackles AIDS and extreme poverty in Africa, I felt my experience should be on the catastrophes facing that work and that part of the world” but made it clear that “there is no hierarchy to such things.”
He said that witnessing “images of starving children on the Gaza Strip” has been profoundly upsetting, given his past experience with famine in Ethiopia.
“Netanyahu’s immoral actions”
“To witness chronic malnutrition up close would make it personal for any family, especially as it affects children,” he wrote. “Because when the loss of non-combatant life en masse appears so calculated… especially the deaths of children, then ‘evil’ is not a hyperbolic adjective… in the sacred text of Jew, Christian, and Muslim it is an evil that must be resisted.”
“As someone who has long believed in Israel’s right to exist and supported a two-state solution, I want to make clear to anyone who cares to listen our band’s condemnation of [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s immoral actions and join all who have called for a cessation of hostilities on both sides,” Bono added. “If not Irish voices, please please please stop and listen to Jewish ones.”
Making peace
The Edge echoed these sentiments in his own statement: “We are all deeply shocked and profoundly grieved by the suffering unfolding in Gaza. What we are witnessing is not a distant tragedy—it is a test of our shared humanity.”
He added, “We know from our own experience in Ireland that peace is not made through dominance. Peace is made when people sit down with their opponents—when they recognise the equal dignity of all, even those they once feared or despised.”
Both Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr also issued individual statements, calling for the protection of civilian life and an end to the ongoing violence.
