On Thursday, Brian Eno posted an open letter to Microsoft, calling on the company to cut its ties with Israel's genocidal campaign against Palestinians. He also pledged to donate the fee that Microsoft paid him for composing the Windows '95 start-up chime to victims of the genocide in Gaza. On Thursday night, U2 frontman and longtime Eno collaborator Bono spoke out against Israeli leadership at London's Ivor Novello Awards, though he took more of a both-sides approach, also criticizing Hamas.
U2 were at the Ivor Novello Awards, the UK's annual show of recognition for songwriters, to receive the Fellowship of the Ivors Academy, its highest honor. As The Guardian reports, Bono took that opportunity to tell Hamas to "release the hostages, stop the war" and to tell Israel to "be released from Benjamin Netanyahu and the far-right fundamentalists that twist your sacred texts." Here's what Bono said while introducing an acoustic performance of "Sunday Bloody Sunday":
I used to introduce this next song by saying it wasn't a rebel song. It was because believing in the possibilities 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, was a ridiculous idea because peace creates possibilities in the most intractable situations, and lord knows there’s a few of them out there right now. Hamas, release the hostages, stop the war. Israel, be released from Benjamin Netanyahu and the far-right fundamentalists that twist your sacred texts. All of you, protect our aid workers. They are the best of us. 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.
In January, Bono received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from outgoing US president Joe Biden. In February, Bono and the Edge shared a message of support for Ukraine. Earlier this week, President Donald Trump demanded investigations into endorsements of Democratic candidates from celebrities, including Bono.
