U2 frontman Bono slammed Hamas, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli “far-right fundamentalists” while accepting an award at Thursday’s Ivor Novello Awards in London.
“To believe peace was attainable between your country and ours, between our country and itself, was a ridiculous idea,” Bono, who is Irish, said to the British crowd, “because peace creates possibilities in the most intractable situations, and Lord knows there’s a few of them out there right now.”
U2 was the first Irish act to receive the Fellowship of The Ivors Academy. Bono marked the moment by performing an acoustic version of the band’s 1983 song “Sunday Bloody Sunday,” an antiwar song about British soldiers’ 1972 massacre of unarmed protesters in Derry, Northern Ireland, The Guardian reported.
“Believing in the possibilities of peace was then, and is now, a rebellious act; and some would say, a ridiculous one,” he said before introducing the song.
Bono, who is known for his activism, has been outspoken on LGBTQ+ rights, co-founded ONE, an international nonprofit that advocates for an end to extreme poverty and disease, and received a Peace Summit Award in 2008.
The singer’s acceptance speech comes a day after Israeli airstrikes killed at least 82 people in Gaza, including several women and a week-old infant. Pope Leo XIV spoke Wednesday after Israel started allowing some aid into Gaza following the country’s nearly three-month blockade on all humanitarian assistance in the territory. However, experts say the new aid is not enough.
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During his speech, Bono went on to call out Netanyahu and Hamas to “stop the war” in Gaza, encouraging peace and protection for aid workers.
“Hamas, release the hostages, stop the war. Israel, be released from Benjamin Netanyahu and the far-right fundamentalists that twist your sacred texts,” he said. “All of you protect our aid workers. They are the best of us.”
Bono ended his speech saying, “God, you must be so tired of us, children of Abraham, in the rubble of our certainties. Children in the rubble of our revenge. God forgive us.”
