Celebrities rally in London at Gaza fund-raiser
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Hot Chip performs onstage during the Together For Palestine concert at Wembley Arena in London, on Sept 17.
PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES
Follow topic:
LONDON – Pro-Palestinian slogans rang out around London’s Ovo Arena Wembley on Sept 17, with the 12,500-capacity venue sold out for Britain’s biggest fund-raising event for the people of Gaza.
The live-streamed “Together for Palestine” (T4P) concert, with tickets at £70 (S$122) each, was the latest in a series of pro-Palestinian events in the British capital, which has seen a wave of marches and demonstrations since the conflict began nearly two years ago.
British musician and political activist Brian Eno organised the fund-raiser to support charities working in the Palestinian territory and to encourage celebrities to speak out.
The line-up included actors Benedict Cumberbatch and Florence Pugh, documentary maker Louis Theroux, whose last film saw him travel to the occupied West Bank to interview Israeli settlers, as well as Palestinian voices and human rights activists.
Eno told AFP that no venue would accept an event with the word “Palestine” in it this time in 2024.
But “things have changed”, he said. “Israel thought starving a whole population would be fine with everyone... I think that changed people’s minds.”
The United Nations in August officially declared a famine
On Sept 16, the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry, which does not speak on behalf of the world body, said that “genocide is occurring in Gaza”
Israel, which launched the offensive in Gaza after Hamas militant attacks on Oct 7, 2023, has strongly denied the allegations and called the latest report “distorted and false”.
Gaza genocide claim
T4P participants said it was unacceptable to remain silent.
The crowd, many waving Palestinian flags, cheered Ms Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, who has faced harsh criticism from Israel and some of its allies.
“The genocide in Gaza is a defining moment,” the Italian human rights expert told AFP.
“Anyone who holds a position of power, including to narrate, has the responsibility to take part in this, to make people understand that they shouldn’t feel fear to speak.”
Palestinian artwork curated by Gazan artist Malak Mattar decorated the stage, depicting the situation in Gaza.
“We want to empower people to take action,” Ms Mattar said. “We owe the people of Palestine our solidarity.”
Hamas’s attack on Israel in 2023 led to the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Israel’s retaliatory strikes have left more than 65,000 Palestinians dead, also mostly civilians, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, figures the UN considers reliable.
Funds raised from Sept 17’s concert and online donations will go to British charity Choose Love, to support Palestinian-led organisations providing humanitarian relief. AFP
