A star-studded benefit concert for Palestine took place at London's Ovo Arena Wembley, featuring 69 artists, speakers and activists. The four-hour event, curated by Brian Eno, raised an estimated £500,000 from ticket sales alone, with additional revenue from merchandise and online donations. The lineup included musicians Damon Albarn, Bastille, PinkPantheress, Hot Chip, and Neneh Cherry, alongside actors Benedict Cumberbatch, Florence Pugh, Guy Pearce, and Ramy Youssef.
The concert was not an exercise in white saviourism, with Palestinian voices making a significant impact. Artistic director Malak Mattar, an exiled Palestinian artist, curated the bill alongside Eno. Palestinian musicians such as oud player Adnan Joubran, rapper El Far3i, and singer Nai Barghouti performed, while journalist Yara Eid spoke passionately about the 270 journalists killed in Gaza. Pianist Faraj Suleiman played to a crowd of 12,500, backed by a jazz-prog power trio.
Outside the arena, a small group of pro-Israeli protesters were kept apart from attendees waving Palestinian flags. Inside, the mood was largely supportive, with the nearest thing to dissent occurring when Louis Theroux referred to Israeli violence and was heckled with cries of 'It's genocide!' Benedict Cumberbatch omitted a line from a Mahmoud Darwish poem about the dead of Gaza ascending to heaven 'with a smile', while Richard Gere abandoned his scripted speech to talk about a 'caravan of love and compassion'.
The event drew comparisons to 1980s benefit concerts such as the GLC Jobs for a Change festival and the Artists Against Apartheid's Festival for Freedom. By 10pm, many attendees left wearing Together for Palestine T-shirts and carrying tote bags, with few leaving during the four-hour performance.
