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British Band Denies Support for Yahya Sinwar After Showing Footage of Late Hamas Leader at UK Concert
Hamas leader and Oct. 7 pogrom mastermind Yahya Sinwar addressing a rally in Gaza. Photo: Reuters/braheem Abu Mustafa
The British trip-hop group Massive Attack released a statement on Monday in response to controversy surrounding a video montage it displayed at a recent concert in the United Kingdom that included footage of the late Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, who masterminded the Palestinian terrorist group’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel
“Massive Attack categorically reject any suggestion that footage or reportage used as part of an artistic digital collage in our live show seeks to glorify or celebrate any featured subject,” the Bristol-based band — who are avid critics of Israel – said in a statement shared on social media. “To isolate a single section of reportage from the artistic context within which it sits – a digital array that spans a wide variety of issues and themes … – is tantamount to a willful device to create conditions for misinterpretation, or distortion.”
Massive Attack headlined LIDO Festival on Friday night at London’s Victoria Park and during their set, they showcased a video montage reportedly titled “Open the doors to the merchants of death.” It included real-life footage of Sinwar’s family members, including the late terrorist leader himself, walking through a Hamas terror tunnel underneath the Gaza Strip on Oct. 10, 2023.
Sinwar orchestrated the deadly Hamas-led terrorist attack that took place three days earlier in southern Israel, in which 1,200 people were murdered and 251 others were taken as hostages back to Gaza. Sinwar was killed during an Israeli military operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah in October 2024. The footage of Sinwar and his family members walking through the Hamas tunnel that Massive Attack showcased on Friday night was released by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) last year.
Alex Gandler, deputy spokesperson for Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said the band’s display of the footage was “just disgusting.”
“People have completely lost the plot,” he wrote in a post on X. “They are aligning themselves with the worst humans. not [sic] even hiding their hatred anymore.”
Massive Attack said in its statement on Monday that the film loop featuring footage of Sinwar “interplays with scenes from Jean Cocteau’s film ‘Orpheus,’ creating both a placement and implicit tone of horrified lament; that an individual of power can take people down into hell.”
“It would be bizarre (and perhaps revealing) that any observer of the live show films would solely home in on the Sinwar/IDF footage and completely overlook all other controversial figures featured in the reportage loops,” the group added. “Would ‘x’ observer suggest we sought to glorify Vladimir Putin, who appears in four loops? Or Donald Trump, who appears in several? Or J. Edgar Hoover? Or indeed the IDF soldiers who feature in the exact same location reportage as the Yahya Sinwar footage cited by various social media accounts? Unfortunately, the only reasonable conclusion is that this level of deliberate context removal, and such a leap of misinterpretation, has political motivations.”
Massive Attack concluded by claiming that artists who “consistently speak out against Israeli war crimes, apartheid, and human rights abuses, and in defense of the Palestinian people” face “determined and spurious attempts to discredit us, as a deterrent to us from speaking out.”
They stated: “These spurious attempts will always fail.”
Massive Attack has participated in a cultural boycott of Israel since 1999. During their show on Friday night, the group also displayed on the screen on stage a video message calling for the release of Palestinian terrorist Marwan Barghouti. The secretary general of the Fatah movement in the West Bank was arrested by Israel in 2002 and is serving five life terms for the murder of Israeli civilians during the Second Intifada.
The band showed footage of the arrested Palestinian political leader declaring that “security will be achieved by one way: by peace.” Massive Attack then displayed an alleged quote by Nelson Mandela from 2002. Barghouti’s lawyer at the time quoted Mandela as saying: “What is happening to Barghouti is exactly the same as what happened to me.” Afterwards, an image of a massive Palestinian flag adorned the screen along with the message “Free Palestine.” Several Palestinian flags were also waved by audience members throughout the performance.
Massive Attack was also joined on stage during their set at the LIDO Festival by actor and activist Khalid Abdalla and American rapper Yasiin Bey, formerly known as Mos Def. Abdalla, who was introduced as a patron of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, rallied the crowd to make some noise “if you want your favorite artists to stand up for Palestine.” He also claimed that the Palestine solidarity movement is “the civil rights movement, the anti-apartheid movement [and] the anti-genocide movement of our time in which ‘never again’ means never again for anyone.” Abdalla was referencing the “Never Again” slogan that is commonly used to commemorate the Holocaust and as a pledge to ensure that similar atrocities will not happen again.
“Dance for freedom and a free, free Palestine,” Abdalla shouted at the audience who gathered at the Massive Attack performance on Friday night. He also reportedly called for an immediate ceasefire to end the Israel-Hamas war and the distribution of humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza, according to NME.
A day before their performance at the Lido Festival, Massive Attack played in Manchester’s Co-Op Live. Before their set, they released a statement condemning the arena’s new corporate sponsorship deal with Barclays, claiming it has a “profoundly unethical corporate identity” because of its alleged “billions of dollars of investments in arms companies that supply Israel in its genocidal onslaught of Gaza, and war crimes in the West Bank.”
The band said after its insistence, owners of Co-Op Live agreed to remove from the arena all physical and digital Barclays livery and logos and on Massive Attack’s show page on the arena website. The group also added that “no show tickets will go to Barclays.”
The post British Band Denies Support for Yahya Sinwar After Showing Footage of Late Hamas Leader at UK Concert first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israel’s Supreme Court Orders Improved Food for Security Prisoners
Israel’s Supreme Court. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.
i24 News – Israel’s Supreme Court on Sunday instructed the Prison Service (Shabas) to guarantee adequate food supplies for security prisoners, ruling that current conditions fall short of minimum legal standards. The decision followed an appeal filed by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel.
In a 2–1 ruling, the court found that the food situation posed “a risk of non-compliance with legal standards.” Justice Dafna Barak-Erez stressed that the matter concerned “basic conditions necessary for survival, as required by law,” not comfort or privilege. Justice Ofer Grosskopf agreed, noting the state had not shown the policy was consistently applied to all inmates.
Justice David Mintz dissented, maintaining that the existing policy already met legal requirements.
The court underscored that Israel’s legal obligations remain binding, even in light of the ongoing hostage crisis in Gaza and the fact that many of the prisoners include Hamas members involved in the October 7, 2023 attack.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir condemned the ruling, arguing that while hostages in Gaza lack protection, “terrorist murderers, kidnappers, and rapists in prison” benefit from the Court’s intervention. He added that prisoners would continue receiving only the minimum conditions required by law.
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Ukrainian Government Building Set Ablaze in Record Russian Airstrike
Illustrative. More damage caused by the Russian drone that hit the Perlina school in Kyiv, Ukraine, Oct. 30, 2024. Photo: Jewish community JCC in Kyiv, Kyiv municipality, and Yan Dobronosov
i24 News – The Ukrainian government’s main building in Kyiv was hit overnight Saturday by Russian airstrikes for the first time since the war, igniting a fire in the building, authorities said. Firefighters are working to put out the flames.
“The government building was damaged by an enemy attack — the roof and upper floors,” Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Sviridenko said. The blaze is is burning in the area of the office of the prime minister.
Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched a total of 805 drones and 13 missiles overnight on Ukraine — a record number since the start of the war.
Also as a result of the strike, a baby and a young woman were killed after a nine-story residential building was hit in the Svyatoshynsky district, also in Kyiv. Rescuers are still looking for a third body, authorities said. A woman was also reported killed in the strike in Novopavlivka village.
“The world must respond to this destruction not only with words, but also with actions. We need to increase sanctions pressure – primarily against Russian oil and gas. We need new restrictions that will hit the Kremlin’s military machine. And most importantly, Ukraine needs weapons. Something that will stop the terror and prevent Russia from trying to kill Ukrainians every day,” wrote Sviridenko after the attack.
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‘Trump’s Legacy Crumbles’: Israelis Call on US President to End Gaza War
Israeli protestors take part in a rally demanding the immediate release of the hostages kidnapped during the deadly October 7, 2023 attack on Israel by Hamas, and the end of war in Gaza, in Jerusalem September 6, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
Thousands of Israelis rallied in Tel Aviv on Saturday night, issuing direct appeals to US President Donald Trump to force an end to the Gaza war and secure the release of the hostages.
Protesters packed a public square outside the military headquarters, waving Israeli flags and holding placards with images of the hostages. Some carried signs, including one that read: ‘Trump’s legacy crumbles as the Gaza war persists.’
Another said: “PRESIDENT TRUMP, SAVE THE HOSTAGES NOW!”
“We think that Trump is the only man in the world who has authority over Bibi, that can force Bibi to do this,” said Tel Aviv resident Boaz, 40, referring to the Israeli prime minister.
There is growing despair among many Israelis at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who has ordered the military to capture a major urban center where hostages may be held.
Families of the hostages and their supporters fear the assault on Gaza City could endanger their loved ones, a concern the military leadership shares, according to Israeli officials.
Orna Neutra, the mother of an Israeli soldier who was killed on October 7, 2023 and whose body is being held in Gaza by militants, accused the government of abandoning its citizens.
“We truly hope that the United States will push both sides to finally reach a comprehensive deal that will bring them home,” she told the rally. Her son, Omer, is also American.
Tel Aviv has witnessed weekly demonstrations that have grown in size, with protesters demanding that the government secure a ceasefire with Hamas to obtain the release of hostages. Organizers said Saturday night’s rally was attended by tens of thousands. A large demonstration was also held in Jerusalem.
There are 48 hostages held in Gaza. Israeli officials believe that around 20 are still alive. Palestinian terrorists abducted 251 people from Israel on October 7, 2023, when Hamas led its attack. Most of the hostages who have been released were freed after indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas.
NO PURPOSE
Trump had pledged a swift end to the war in Gaza during his presidential campaign, but nearly eight months into his second term, a resolution has remained elusive. On Friday, he said that Washington was engaged in “very deep” negotiations with Hamas.
Israeli forces have carried out heavy strikes on the suburbs of Gaza City, where, according to a global hunger monitor, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are facing famine. Israeli officials acknowledge that hunger exists in Gaza but deny that the territory is facing famine. On Saturday, the military warned civilians in Gaza City to leave and move to southern Gaza.
There are hundreds of thousands of Palestinians sheltering in the city that was home to around a million before the war.
A video released by Hamas on Friday featured Israeli hostage Guy Gilboa-Dalal, 24, saying that he was being held in Gaza City and feared being killed by the military’s assault on the city. Rights groups have condemned such videos of hostages as inhumane. Israel says that it is psychological warfare.
The war has become unpopular among some segments of Israeli society, and opinion polls show that most Israelis want Netanyahu’s right-wing government to negotiate a permanent ceasefire with Hamas that secures the release of the hostages.
“The war has no purpose at all, except for violence and death,” said Boaz from Tel Aviv. Adam, 48, said it had become obvious that soldiers were being sent to war for “nothing.”
Tens of thousands of Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli military since it launched its retaliatory war after Hamas fighters attacked Israel from Gaza in October 2023. Around 1,200 people were killed in that attack on southern Israel.
The terrorist group, which has ruled Gaza for nearly two decades but today controls only parts of the enclave, on Saturday once again said that it would release all hostages if Israel agreed to end the war and withdraw its forces from Gaza.
Netanyahu is pushing for an all-or-nothing deal that would see all of the hostages released at once and Hamas surrendering.
The prime minister has said Gaza City is a Hamas stronghold and capturing it is necessary to defeat the Palestinian militant group, whose October 2023 attack on Israel led to the war.
Hamas has acknowledged it would no longer govern Gaza once the war ends but has refused to discuss laying down its weapons.