{"id":313604,"date":"2025-08-13T07:00:34","date_gmt":"2025-08-13T07:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=313604"},"modified":"2025-08-15T06:49:38","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T06:49:38","slug":"word-soup-u2-statement-on-gaza-dismissed-as-billionaire-pacifism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=313604","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Word soup&#8217;: U2 statement on Gaza dismissed as \u2018billionaire pacifism\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Middle East Eye \u2013 Aug 12, 2025<\/strong><\/h1>\n<p>The massively popular Irish band U2&#8217;s lengthy\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.u2.com\/news\/title\/on-gaza\/\">statement<\/a> on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.middleeasteye.net\/countries\/syria\">Israel\u2019s<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.middleeasteye.net\/topics\/israel-war-gaza\">war on Gaza<\/a> on Sunday has triggered widespread backlash on social media and has been dubbed \u201cbillionaire pacifism\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>In the statement, all four members of the band shared their individual views on Gaza, touching upon an array of issues such as Israel\u2019s starvation of Gaza, the blocking of humanitarian aid and the potential military takeover of the enclave by Israel.<\/p>\n<p>The band\u2019s statement starts with the phrase, \u201cWe are not experts in the politics of the region, but we want our audience to know where we each stand.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Lead singer Bono\u2019s (Paul David Hewson) own statement spans from \u201cThe rape, murder, and abduction of Israelis at the Nova music festival was evil\u201d to \u201cI also understood that Hamas are not the Palestinian people.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bono&#8217;s statement repeats Israel\u2019s often-repeated &#8220;right to self-defence justification and echoes the same debunked claims Israel makes about Hamas using civilians as human shields. He also added that \u201cBenjamin Netanyahu today deserves our categorical and unequivocal condemnation\u201d, which many on social media have criticised as \u201cword <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/TiarnanTweets\/status\/1954617230370439507\">soup<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">U2&#8217;s Gaza statement is billionaire pacifism, weeping into your champagne as you cash cheques from a genocide. Your &#8216;moral clarity&#8217; stops where your wallet begins. Bono et al\u2026until you ditch Live Nation and denounce your donors, you&#8217;re just laundering blood money through a\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/13j4o7Yp25\">https:\/\/t.co\/13j4o7Yp25<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Mark Jones (@markjonescp) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/markjonescp\/status\/1954758296901943581?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 11, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Others criticised U2\u2019s statement for their opening claim that they are not \u201cexperts in the politics in the region\u201d, though they made public statements about Ukraine and the Ukrainian people \u201cfor all of us who love freedom\u201d, two months into Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">On Gaza &#8211; Everyone has long been horrified by what is unfolding in Gaza &#8211; but the blocking of humanitarian aid and now plans for a military takeover of Gaza City has taken the conflict into uncharted territory. We are not experts in the politics of the region, but we want our\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/jybXZiC4P2\">pic.twitter.com\/jybXZiC4P2<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 U2 (@U2) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/U2\/status\/1954559645047239123?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 10, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>U2\u2019s statement came on the same day Israel killed prominent Al Jazeera correspondents Anas al-Sharif and Mohammed Qreiqeh in a drone strike on a press tent near al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City. The strike also took the lives of Al Jazeera staff Ibrahim Zaher, Mohammed Noufal and Moamen Aliwa, as well as freelance journalist Mohammed al-Khalidi.<\/p>\n<p>After Bono\u2019s statement, perhaps the one that received the most backlash was the statement by Larry Mullen Jr, the drummer of the band.<\/p>\n<p>He said that after the 7 October Hamas-led attack on Israel, Israel&#8217;s response was expected.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;After those attacks, the total obliteration of Hamas was called for by Israel and its allies and was expected.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Many on social media expressed outrage at these words, hinting that Israel\u2019s war on Gaza started well before 7 October 2023.<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">On Gaza &#8211; Everyone has long been horrified by what is unfolding in Gaza &#8211; but the blocking of humanitarian aid and now plans for a military takeover of Gaza City has taken the conflict into uncharted territory. We are not experts in the politics of the region, but we want our\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/jybXZiC4P2\">pic.twitter.com\/jybXZiC4P2<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 U2 (@U2) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/U2\/status\/1954559645047239123?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 10, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Some on social media, uninterested in Mullen&#8217;s statement on Gaza in general, expressed their <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Planet_Belfast\/status\/1954604810361061665\">confusion<\/a> as to why he felt he had to share his thoughts on this issue.<\/p>\n<p>This was a general sentiment towards the entirety of the statement by many social media users, saying that the band, specifically Bono, was a &#8220;fraud&#8221; and has no issue staying \u201cout of politics when it suits him\u201d.<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">I could not give an absolute fuck what U2 have to say about Gaza. Those shills have been dripping in Israeli blood money since day dot.<\/p>\n<p>Bono can &#8220;stay out of politics&#8221; when it suits him, while he&#8217;s filling his pockets. He&#8217;s a gutless poser and a fraud.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Carlito&#8217;s Way stan account \uf1f5\uf1f8 (@Oh_Deer_Diner) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Oh_Deer_Diner\/status\/1954869121570513359?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 11, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>This is not the first time Bono has come under scrutiny for what critics say is selective humanitarianism, with satirical comedy show South Park taking aim at him in <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=hbBrnEU-ZUc\">More Crap<\/a><\/em>, the 9th episode of season 11.<\/p>\n<p>The Edge (David Howell Evans), lead guitarist of the band, criticised Netanyahu\u2019s Likud party for its plan to ethnically cleanse Palestinians from Gaza and the occupied West Bank to make way for a \u201cGreater Israel.\u201d If the end game is this, \u201cthat is not peace-it is dispossession, ethnic cleansing, and, according to many legal scholars, colonial genocide,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Some on social media said that Mullen&#8217;s statement was the <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/ZackieAchmat\/status\/1954953766509359550\">only<\/a> one openly and directly addressing Israel\u2019s assaults on Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, which several countries, as well as many international rights groups and experts, now qualify as an act of genocide. Over 61,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the war started in October 2023, most of them women and children.<\/p>\n<p>Many also said that even though they grew up listening to the band, they <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/suziegeewizz\/status\/1954603314865479992\">would<\/a> not follow or listen to their songs anymore, simply because they root for \u201cwar criminals and imperialism\u201d.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.middleeasteye.net\/trending\/u2-statement-gaza-dismissed-as-billionaire-pacifism\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bono&#8217;s statement echoes Israel\u2019s often-repeated claim about \u201cthe right to defend itself\u201d. Yet another example of how, despite their \u201crebel\u201d image, the Irish rockers now act as a mouthpiece for the Powers That Be <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":313606,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[118,61,37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-313604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-7-10-gaza-war","category-Commentary","category-Israel_Anti-Semitism_Zionism_and_US-UK_allies"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=313604"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313604\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":313609,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313604\/revisions\/313609"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/313606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=313604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=313604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=313604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}