"Hamas is not the Palestinian people": U2 protests against the Israeli government

"We want our audience to know where we stand." In a lengthy op-ed shared Sunday, August 10, on its social media and website, U2 spoke out for the first time about the war in the Gaza Strip . "Everyone has long been horrified by what is happening there, but the blocking of humanitarian aid and the current plans to take control of the city have pushed the conflict into uncharted territory," said Bono , The Edge , Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr., the four members of the Irish band.

The Dublin-based musicians particularly condemned the recent statements by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who on August 7th stated that he wanted to "take control of the whole of Gaza [...] in order to ensure the security [of the Hebrew state] and eliminate Hamas." " If Israel decides to colonize the Gaza Strip, it will definitively destroy any possibility of lasting peace or a resolution of hostilities," protested Adam Clayton, U2's bassist.

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Frontman Bono spoke of his pain at the "images of starving Palestinian children." He recalled: "They reminded me of a business trip my wife Ali and I took 40 years ago to a food center in Ethiopia after U2's appearance at Live Aid 1985. Another man-made famine." The founder of ONE, an NGO fighting AIDS and extreme poverty in Africa, added: " I hoped Israel would come to its senses. I was making excuses for a people scarred and shaped by the experience of the Holocaust [...] who understood that the threat of extermination was not simply a fear, but a reality."

Don't you see that the longer this goes on, the more Israel risks isolating itself?

The Edge

The 65-year-old singer, who supports a two-state solution , says he has "understood that Hamas is not the Palestinian people, a people who have suffered and have continued to suffer for years." He also attacks Benjamin Netanyahu, who "deserves the categorical and unequivocal condemnation" of the Irish group. His friend The Edge adds a scathing message to the Israeli Prime Minister: " Don't you see that the longer this goes on, the more Israel risks isolating itself, of being seen not as a refuge from persecution, but as a state that, when provoked, systematically persecutes the neighboring civilian population?"

Also read: Musical journey to Palestine

The band then believes that the Israeli government fell into "a trap" after the "diabolical acts" of October 7, 2023, during the Tribe of Nova music festival where Israelis were massacred. " [Hamas has] set a diabolical trap for Israel that started a war," U2 notes. "Hamas leaders were ready to take this gamble with the lives of two million Palestinians to sow the seeds of a global intifada that U2 had glimpsed in Paris during the Bataclan attack in 2015."

"What did Hamas expect when it committed mass murder and took hostages ? " asks drummer Larry Mullen Jr. "After these attacks, the total destruction of Hamas was demanded by Israel and its allies, and was expected." He added: : " A ground war was predictable. The indiscriminate destruction of most homes and hospitals in Gaza, with a majority of women and children among the victims, was not predictable."

We know from our own experience in Ireland that peace is not achieved through domination.

U2

At the end of this long column, Bono demands that the Israeli government listen to the voices of "Jews who fear the damage caused to Judaism and to Israel's neighbors" after this war. Around a hundred thousand Jews demonstrated this week in the streets of Tel Aviv to demand an end to the fighting. The group also says it " stands in solidarity with the Palestinian people who sincerely seek a path to peace and coexistence with Israel." " We know from our own experience in Ireland that peace is not achieved through domination," he concludes.