Having solved the African famine, Irish singer-songwriter Bob Geldof is focusing on hunger in Gaza and blaming Israel.
The Jewish Geldof, who initiated the iconic Live Aid shows in 1985 and the ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas’ single the year before to raise funds to fight a famine in Ethiopia, wrote an op-ed in the Daily Express accusing Israel of being “out of control” in its Gaza policy.
It is “simply no longer possible to blame the current rhetoric and actions of your Prime Minister, the policies of your government or the actions of your military on the disgusting, barbarous and murderous events of October 7”, he wrote, adding, “You are way, way past that now.”
Omitting captivity of Israeli hostages
Without mentioning Hamas’s role in the current morass in Gaza, or the plight of the Israeli hostages being held in captivity there, Geldof wrote, “What has happened to the Israeli people? Whatever the titanic enormity of your own past and current suffering, what has happened to you that you should allow such suffering, captured in this sickening image, for even one fraction of a second? That you should create and perpetuate the suffering of this tiny little speck of humanity.”
“Have you become so inured to the similar images of your own historic horror that you cannot feel or see anything anymore? Has the ‘other’ been so dehumanized, as you once so cruelly were, that a similar madness seizes you now and permits such stomach-churning barbarity, such degradation of a great people by a great people?” he continued, next to a photo of a purported Gazan infant suffering from malnutrition.
Geldof’s message to Israel: “Just… stop. For all our sakes”. Your government and your army seem to be out of control. Why do you, the people of Israel, tolerate and permit this?”
Appearing on Sky News on Sunday, Geldof said: If Israelis want to protest: get in your cars, stuff your cars full of food, drive through that border and let your own army stop you.”