U2 members speak out on Gaza: ‘A test of our shared humanity’

By Lisa Respers France, CNN

(CNN) — The legendary band U2 has always been outspoken about their views and they are now sharing their thoughts about the conflict in Gaza.

Bono, the Edge, Adam Clayton, and Larry Mullen Jr., took to their official site to post statements condemning the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, speaking out in support of the safe return of the remaining Israeli hostages and calling for access to critical care for Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.

“Everyone has long been horrified by what is unfolding in Gaza – but the blocking of humanitarian aid and now plans for a military takeover of Gaza City has taken the conflict into uncharted territory,” their site reads. “We are not experts in the politics of the region, but we want our audience to know where we each stand.”

“Apart from the attack on the Nova music festival on October 7th, which felt like it happened while U2 were on stage at Sphere Las Vegas, I have generally tried to stay out of the politics of the Middle East,” Bono wrote in his individual statement.

“This was not humility, more uncertainty in the face of obvious complexity,” he added. “I have over recent months written about the war in Gaza in The Atlantic and spoken about it in The Observer, but I circled the subject.”

He went on to write that as “a cofounder of the ONE Campaign, which tackles AIDS and extreme poverty in Africa, I felt my experience should be on the catastrophes facing that work and that part of the world” before stating that “there is no hierarchy to such things.”

Seeing “images of starving children on the Gaza Strip” has been deeply grieving, Bono added, given his experience witnessing famine first hand in Ethiopia years ago.

“To witness chronic malnutrition up close would make it personal for any family, especially as it affects children,” he wrote. “Because when the loss of non-combatant life en masse appears so calculated… especially the deaths of children, then ‘evil’ is not a hyperbolic adjective… in the sacred text of Jew, Christian, and Muslim it is an evil that must be resisted.”

“As someone who has long believed in Israel’s right to exist and supported a two-state solution, I want to make clear to anyone who cares to listen our band’s condemnation of [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s immoral actions and join all who have called for a cessation of hostilities on both sides,” Bono wrote. “If not Irish voices, please please please stop and listen to Jewish ones.”

“We are all deeply shocked and profoundly grieved by the suffering unfolding in Gaza,” his bandmate, The Edge, wrote. “What we are witnessing is not a distant tragedy—it is a test of our shared humanity.”

“We know from our own experience in Ireland that peace is not made through dominance,” he continued. “Peace is made when people sit down with their opponents—when they recognise the equal dignity of all, even those they once feared or despised.”

Clayton and Mullen Jr. also shared individual statements, calling for preservation of civilian life and an end to the conflict.

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