Bono, citing Rabbi Sharon Brous and Mandy Patinkin, condemns Israel over war in Gaza

JTA – U2 frontman Bono stood out in the immediate aftermath of Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack on Israel for dedicating a song to the hundreds of “beautiful kids” murdered at the Nova festival.

Now, Bono and his bandmates have broken their silence on the subsequent two years of war to denounce the Israeli government for its prosecution of the war in Gaza.

“We know Hamas are using starvation as a weapon in the war, but now so too is Israel, and I feel revulsion for the moral failure,” Bono said in an extensive statement posted on Sunday, 10 August, to Instagram. “The government of Israel isn’t the nation of Israel, but the government of Israel led by Benjamin Netanyahu today deserves a categorical and unequivocal condemnation.”

Bono’s statement, which was joined by shorter statements from each of his three bandmates, referred to widespread support for the Palestinian cause in his native Ireland. He also cited Jewish figures that have also come out as sharply critical of Israel’s ongoing offensive in Gaza.

“If not Irish voices, please, please, please stop and listen to Jewish ones, from the high mindedness of Rabbi Sharon Brous to the tearful comedy of the Grody-Patinkin family, who fear the damage to Judaism as well as Israel’s neighbours,” Bono said, referring to the rabbi of IKAR in Los Angeles and the actor, Mandy Patinkin, and his wife, Kathryn Grody, who recently called on Jews to reflect on the war in Gaza in an interview with The New York Times Magazine. “Listen to the more than 100 000 Israelis who this week in Tel Aviv protested for an end to the war.”

Brous reposted Bono’s statement on Instagram on Sunday, writing, “We stand together for human dignity, the sanctity of every life, and a future built on justice and compassion.”

Last May, while U2 received an award, Bono used his acceptance speech to condemn the Israeli government’s prosecution of the Gaza war while also criticising Hamas. But in his statement, which criticises Hamas extensively while saying that “Israel’s leaders fell for this trap that Hamas laid for them”, he said he had held back from speaking more forcefully about the war in in part because he recalled the brutality and “evil” of Hamas’s attack.

Bono also pledged to donate an unspecified amount to the group Medical Aid For Palestinians and called on the “good people in Israel” to demand expanded aid distribution in Gaza and the West Bank.

“Our band stands in solidarity with the people of Palestine who truly seek a path to peace and coexistence with Israel and with their rightful and legitimate demand for statehood,” the statement continued. “We stand in solidarity with the remaining hostages, and plead that someone rational negotiate their release.”