Star-studded Palestinian benefit concert at London's Wembley raises €1.7m

Last night, the 12,500-capicity OVO Arena Wembley in London was sold out for the Together For Palestine concert - the UK's largest fundraising concert for Gaza.  

The event, which was exclusively livestreamed on YouTube, saw musicians, actors and activists come together to raise funds to support Palestinian-led organisations responding to the escalating humanitarian crisis in the region. 

Coordinated by Brian Eno, alongside Palestinian artist Malak Mattar who served as artistic director, funds from ticket sales, online donations, and merchandise are distributed via the UK charity Choose Love to aid groups including Taawon, Palestine Children’s Relief Fund and Palestine Medical Relief Service. 

The event was billed as "a gathering of artists, musicians and people for whom silence feels impossible."

Ticket sales for the event raised an estimated £500,000 (€576,600), with presenter Jameela Jamil announcing that the concert had raised a total of £1.5m (€1.7m) at 11pm CET. 

The eclectic line-up included musicians Portishead, Gorillaz, Nadine Shah, Neneh Cherry, PinkPantheress, Bastille, Jamie xx, James Blake, and several Palestinian musicians such as Nai Barghouti, Elyanna, Adnan Joubran, Faraj Suleiman and rapper El Far3i.

Speakers and presenters ranged from actors Richard Gere, Benedict Cumberbatch, Florence Pugh to former football star Eric Cantona, Chicken Shop Date host Amelia Dimoldenberg and documentary filmmaker Louis Theroux.  

A pre-recorded video shown before the concert featured actors Cillian Murphy, Joaquin Phoenix, and Brian Cox, alongside more musicians like Billie Eilish. They called for an immediate ceasefire and urged audiences to pressure their governments.

Benedict Cumberbatch took to the stage to read the poem "On this land there are reasons to live" by the Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish, sharing the reading with playwright Amer Hlehel. 

As for Florence Pugh, she delivered a moving speech, saying: “Silence in the face of such suffering is not neutrality. It is complicity. And empathy should not be this hard, and it should’ve never been this hard.”

UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese received a standing ovation. She urged people not to lose sight of the suffering in Gaza and the West Bank: “As we gather here tonight celebrating life and hope, many Palestinians are holding their loved ones in makeshift tents, waiting for the next bomb.”

Eric Cantona urged FIFA and UEFA to suspend Israel, and highlighted a glaring double standard: “Four days after Russia started a war in Ukraine, FIFA and UEFA banned Russia. We’re now 716 days into what Amnesty International have called a genocide, and yet Israel continue to be allowed to still participate.” 

Palestinian journalist Yara Eid condemned the deaths of over 270 journalists in Gaza since October 2023, while Zeteo founder Mehdi Hasan added: “Shame on those Western journalists who have said not a word about the mass killing of their Palestinian counterparts. Shame on them.”

Since Hamas’ attack on Israeli citizens on October 7, 2023, multiple UN human rights experts and UN bodies have stated that Israel’s military actions in Gaza may amount to genocide, with the International Court of Justice finding claims of genocide plausible. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification announced that people in the Gaza Strip are officially facing “a man-made” famine in the territory – despite what the Israeli government has said.