Together for Palestine: A rousing call of solidarity from London to the world
A sold-out Wembley Arena and an all-star cast of musicians and speakers makes for an unforgettable night in London.
By Nick Reilly
There’s a moment early on during the Together for Palestine show at Wembley Arena when comedian Guz Khan reflects on the fact that as of this week, the United Nations has finally recognised that a genocide is happening in Palestine.
“Tonight we, every single one of us, come together to bow our heads to the resilience and courage of the people in Palestine,” the comedian says while flanked by Riz Ahmed, who grew up just a stone’s throw away from this venue.
Across the near five hours that follows, it’s the job of a combined 69 musicians, artists and activists to show solidarity and strike a note that flits between righteous anger and the unwavering hope that things might just change in the future.
On the former point, there’s the likes of UN expert Francesca Albanese, who delivers a firebrand speech which calls out government complicity. She’s later followed by the journalist Mehdi Hasan, who pays tribute to fallen Palestinian reporters and leads 12,000 people in a chant of, “You can’t bomb the truth away”.
Perhaps more randomly, but just as equally impassioned was an appearance from Hollywood legend Richard Gere, who ditched his planned speech to instead call on Benjamin Netanyahu to resign and for Donald Trump to stop the conflict. “He could stop this in one day. If he wants a Nobel Peace Prize, this is how he could get it,” he said. He was a surprise on the night, but other A-Listers lending their support included Florence Pugh, Benedict Cumberbatch and Ruth Negga.
When it came to the music, there was a perfect mixture of Palestinian sounds and Western artists who did their bit for a show that would eventually raise £1.5m. Palestinian star Nai Barghouti managed to get the entire room on their feet for a moment of much needed levity, while organiser Brian Eno blended the two for a set that combined his pioneering ambient music with that of local Palestinian musicians. In the background of Eno’s set was the work of artist Malak Mattar, which hammered home the reality of the situation through paintings of a bombed out Gaza City so warped that they resembled the hell-scapes of Hieronymus Bosch.
Few crowd reactions were greater, however, than that received by Bastille‘s Dan Smith, who delivered a stripped back piano version of ‘Pompeii’ which turned the band’s breakout hit on its head and gave it an entirely new and relevant sense of meaning too. “And the walls kept tumbling down in the city that we love,” came his haunting cry. It was a beautiful moment, duly met with one of the biggest reactions of the night. Equally impassioned too was Paloma Faith, who debuted a song about taking her children to pro-Palestine marches in central London, performing in a dress fashioned from keffiyehs.
At times, it was perhaps impossible to keep up with the action, such was the overwhelmingly packed nature of the bill. Eric Cantona showed up late on to call for Israel to be suspended from international football competitions, while a brief appearance from Louis Theroux and Chicken Shop Date star Amelia Dimoldenberg felt like an equally random moment.
But by the time Damon Albarn showed up late on for a Gorillaz performance which featured Yasiin Bey and Syrian singer Omar Souleyman, the dancing feet of the thousands in the arena suggested that the night had been a huge success. A night of raising awareness and showing solidarity for one of the most pressing humanitarian issues of our times and, as shown through the music too, the chance to dream of a better tomorrow.