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Bono Calls for Hamas to Free Hostages, Israel to be ‘Released’ From Netanyahu During Award Acceptance Speech
Bono poses on the red carpet during arrivals for the screening of the documentary film “Bono: Stories of Surrender” presented as part of Special Screenings at the 78th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France, May 16, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Benoit Tessier
U2 lead singer Bono urged the Hamas terrorist organization to release the remaining hostages abducted from Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and “stop the war” with Israel during an acceptance speech at the annual Ivors Novello Awards ceremony on Thursday, held at Grosvenor House in London.
At the 70th year of the awards ceremony, which recognizes achievements in songwriting and screen composition, U2 became the first Irish songwriters to be inducted into The Ivors Fellowship Academy, which hosts the award ceremony and is the leading organization representing songwriters and composers. The band accepted the award from pop star Ed Sheeran.
Before performing an acoustic rendition of U2’s 1983 hit song “Sunday Bloody Sunday,” Bono pleaded for peace, while also criticizing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s leadership of the Israeli government. “Sunday Bloody Sunday” references the Bloody Sunday shootings in Derry, Ireland, in January 1972, where members of the British army opened fire on protesters and killed 14 unarmed demonstrators.
“I used to introduce this next song by explaining that it wasn’t a rebel song,” Bono, whose real name is Paul David Hewson, began by saying. “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 that we’re pleased we hold on to very tightly right now. 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,” the Irish singer added. “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.”
At a Las Vegas concert in October 2023 — one after the Hamas massacre on Oct. 7 in Israel – Bono offered his condolences and dedicated a song to the hundreds of music lovers who were murdered by Hamas-led terrorists at the Supernova music festival during the terror group’s deadly rampage across southern Israel.
“In the light of what’s happened in Israel and Gaza, a song about non-violence seems somewhat ridiculous, even laughable, but our prayers have always been for peace and for non-violence,” Bono told the audience at the U2 concert. “But our hearts and our anger, you know where that’s pointed. So, sing with us … and those beautiful kids at that music festival.”
The band then proceeded to perform “Pride (In the Name of Love).” Bono changed the track’s closing lyrics to “Early morning October 7, the sun is rising in the desert sky, Stars of David, they took your life, but they could not take your pride.”
“We sing for our brothers and sisters, who they themselves were singing at the Supernova Sukkot festival in Israel,” Bono further told the crowd at the concert. “We sing for those. Our people. Our kind of people. Music people, playful, experimental people. Our kind of people. We sing for them.”
U2 has performed in Israel only once before, in 1997 at Yarkon Park in Tel Aviv. They were scheduled to perform in the Jewish state in 2011 but eventually canceled the show following pressure from the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel. Bono visited Israel in 2012 and U2 dedicated a song to the late Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres during a 2015 concert in Canada.
The post Bono Calls for Hamas to Free Hostages, Israel to be ‘Released’ From Netanyahu During Award Acceptance Speech first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israel Readies for a Nationwide Strike on Sunday
Demonstrators hold signs and pictures of hostages, as relatives and supporters of Israeli hostages kidnapped during the Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas protest demanding the release of all hostages in Tel Aviv, Israel, Feb. 13, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Itai Ron
i24 News – The families of Israeli hostages held in Gaza are calling on for a general strike to be held on Sunday in an effort to compel the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to agree to a deal with Hamas for the release of their loved ones and a ceasefire. According to Israeli officials, 50 hostages now remain in Gaza, of whom 20 are believed to be alive.
The October 7 Council and other groups representing bereaved families of hostages and soldiers who fell since the start of the war declared they were “shutting down the country to save the soldiers and the hostages.”
While many businesses said they would join the strike, Israel’s largest labor federation, the Histadrut, has declined to participate.
Some of the country’s top educational institutions, including the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv University, declared their support for the strike.
“We, the members of the university’s leadership, deans, and department heads, hereby announce that on Sunday, each and every one of us will participate in a personal strike as a profound expression of solidarity with the hostage families,” the Hebrew University’s deal wrote to students.
The day will begin at 6:29 AM, to commemorate the start of the October 7 attack, with the first installation at Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square in Tel Aviv. Further demonstrations are planned at dozens of traffic intersections.
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Netanyahu ‘Has Become a Problem,’Says Danish PM as She Calls for Russia-Style Sanctions Against Israel
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to the press on Capitol Hill, Washington, DC, July 8, 2025. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
i24 News – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has become a “problem,” his Danish counterpart Mette Frederiksen said Saturday, adding she would try to put pressure on Israel over the Gaza war.
“Netanyahu is now a problem in himself,” Frederiksen told Danish media, adding that the Israeli government is going “too far” and lashing out at the “absolutely appalling and catastrophic” humanitarian situation in Gaza and announced new homes in the West Bank.
“We are one of the countries that wants to increase pressure on Israel, but we have not yet obtained the support of EU members,” she said, specifying she referred to “political pressure, sanctions, whether against settlers, ministers, or even Israel as a whole.”
“We are not ruling anything out in advance. Just as with Russia, we are designing the sanctions to target where we believe they will have the greatest effect.”
The devastating war in Gaza began almost two years ago, with an incursion into Israel of thousands of Palestinian armed jihadists, who perpetrated the deadliest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.
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As Alaska Summit Ends With No Apparent Progress, Zelensky to Meet Trump on Monday
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks at the press conference after the opening session of Crimea Platform conference in Kyiv, Ukraine, 23 August 2023. The Crimea Platform – is an international consultation and coordination format initiated by Ukraine. OLEG PETRASYUK/Pool via REUTERS
i24 News – After US President Donald Trump hailed the “great progress” made during a meeting with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday, Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky announced that he was set to meet Trump on Monday at the White House.
“There were many, many points that we agreed on, most of them, I would say, a couple of big ones that we haven’t quite gotten there, but we’ve made some headway,” Trump told reporters during a joint press conference after the meeting.
Many observers noted, however, that the subsequent press conference was a relatively muted affair compared to the pomp and circumstance of the red carpet welcome, and the summit produced no tangible progress.
Trump and Putin spoke briefly, with neither taking questions, and offered general statements about an “understanding” and “progress.”
Putin, who spoke first, agreed with Trump’s long-repeated assertion that Russia never would have invaded Ukraine in 2022 had Trump been president instead of Democrat Joe Biden.
Trump said “many points were agreed to” and that “just a very few” issues were left to resolve, offering no specifics and making no reference to the ceasefire he’s been seeking.