ADVERTISEMENTU2’s Bono has spoken out against Hamas, Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli “far-right fundamentalists” at the 2025 Ivor Novello Awards last night.
U2 became the first Irish act to receive the Fellowship of the Ivors Academy, the highest honour that the organisation bestows.
The band took to the stage to accept the honour, with frontman Bono calling for peace in the Gaza-Israel conflict.
“I used to introduce this next song by saying it was not 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,” said Bono – referring to the U2 song ‘Sunday Bloody Sunday’, their 1983 track about the 1972 massacre in which the British army shot at unarmed protestors during the Troubles in Northern Ireland, killing 14 people.
“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,” he added.
He then said: “Hamas, release the hostages, stop the war. Israel, be released from Benjamin Netanyahu and the far-right fundamentalists that twist your sacred texts,” before adding: “All of you, protect our aid workers – they are the best of us.”
He concluded by saying: “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.”
The comments mark the first time the human rights activist has spoken out in public against the Israeli prime minister since the war in Gaza broke out in October 2023.
Bono’s speech also comes at a time when Western leaders have been criticising Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli authorities over the renewed offensive in Gaza.
