One hundred and fifty musicians, actors, footballers, journalists, poets, doctors, UN officials and more took to the stage during Brian Eno’s Together 4 Palestine concert in London, on Wednesday. As the genocide continues apace in Gaza, the songs, speeches, dances, and Palestinian artwork was not only a tonic for the sore of heart. The event critically raised funds for aid to Palestine. Demands to increase sanctions and stop weapons sales to Israel deeply resonated with the 12,000-strong audience.
TMR — London
Since the start of Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023, we’ve lost count of the number of fundraising gigs we’ve attended. From back gardens and basements, to pokey clubs and plush theatres, all have allowed artists and audiences to feel like they are doing something — anything — to alleviate the suffering of Palestinians in the living hell of Israel’s creation in Gaza. In this sense, Wednesday’s Together for Palestine (T4P) was no different. But with Wembley’s 12,000-capacity OVO Arena filled, and many more watching online, T4P was truly historic. For one night, Wembley belonged to Palestine.
In addition to raising desperately needed funds, T4P was a timely morale boost. Our phones show us Israel’s invasion of Gaza City, the destruction of Gaza’s few remaining buildings, the weariness of thousands of Palestinians forced to evacuate their shelters for the seventh, or 17th, time. Our government remains entirely ineffectual, with what can only be called cowardice of the lowest order; instead of targeting Israel, it arrests hundreds of protesters, many of them elderly, for the “crime” of supporting peaceful direct action. And just days before the concert, London’s streets swarmed with thousands of anti-immigrant and anti-Islam demonstrators. Singer Rachel Chinouriri acknowledges this from the stage, saying, “After everything that happened this weekend, I feel glad to be in this room with you all.”
Key to T4P’s success — and a huge success it has been, raising £1.5 million (over $2 million) through ticket and merchandise sales, plus additional donations — is that this is no charity gala put on by white liberals for Palestinians — it is a mutual aid effort conducted with Palestinians. The organizations working in Gaza and benefitting from the funds are all Palestinian-led. Throughout the evening, Palestinian speakers are given the platform to tell their stories in their own words. And Palestinian involvement in T4P is clear. Among the first speakers is Malak Mattar, London-based Gazan artist, who explains that Palestinian artwork will be displayed on screen throughout.
Brian Eno, a pioneer of progressive electronic music, president of Stop the War Coalition, and a dedicated activist for the Palestinian cause, deserves high praise for the excellent musical lineup, with its finger on the pulse of both British and Palestinian music scenes. The first to take to the stage, under Jerusalemite painter Vera Tamari’s luminous Gaza: From the Rubble Soars Life (2023), are Palestinian and British DJs Sama’ Abdulhadi and Jamie XX, with a selection far less ferocious than that which Abdulhadi is renowned for on dance floors around the world, but which nonetheless gets the crowd moving. Palestinian artists provide many of the evening’s highlights, such as singer and flautist Nai Barghouti’s haunting rendition of “If I Must Die” by Gazan academic Refaat Alareer, killed by an Israeli airstrike in December 2023.
So crowded is the lineup that not everyone gets their own slot; performers are grouped together for collaborations that mostly bear fruit. London’s neo-soul singer Greentea Peng’s duet with soul legend Neneh Cherry on Cherry’s 1994 hit “7 Seconds” makes musical sense; additional vocals and piano from Bastille’s frontman Dan Smith add an unexpected note to the mix. But this pales beside the English-Arabic verbal sparring between veteran hip-hop master Yasiin Bey, known for his politically and spiritually conscious lyrics, and Omar Souleyman, Syrian wedding singer turned techno-dabka party-starter — it’s left field to say the least, but it works.
“This is no charity gala put on by white liberals for Palestinians — it is a mutual aid effort conducted with Palestinians. The organizations working in Gaza and benefitting from the funds are all Palestinian-led.”
The evening’s undoubted musical highlight comes from the London Arab Orchestra, joined by Damon Albarn for a rousing rendition of the Palestinian folksong “Subb al-Qahwa” and the protest favorite “Ana Dammi Falastini.” Kuffiyas and flags are raised aloft as people sitting in the stands take to their feet. When the dabka dancers of Juzour Dance Collective also join the stage, underneath a giant portrait of Palestinian writer and revolutionary Ghassan Kanafani, the audience’s thrill is palpable.
The celebrities who speak between performances are sometimes wooden, mostly reading from a teleprompter. As one friend notes, several speakers — notably those with successful media careers to safeguard — fail to call out Israel’s actions in Gaza as genocide, sometimes to heckling from the crowd. And no one needs to hear Richard Gere talking about “joining the love caravan,” whatever that means.
It’s when the speakers deviate from the script that they most move the crowd. British-Palestinian reconstructive surgeon Ghassan Abu-Sittah, a hero to all for his 43 days spent working in Gaza in October and November 2023, channels Che Guevara as he exhorts the audience to “Defeat capitalism! Defeat imperialism! Hasta la victoria siempre!” He raises one of the biggest cheers of the evening, along with the standing ovations given to Francesca Albanese, Mehdi Hasan, and London-based Gazan journalist Yara Eid, who pays a deeply moving tribute to the hundreds of her colleagues murdered by Israel.
Despite the vast crowd and echoing soundsystem, there are moments that feel deeply intimate. Palestinian footballer Mahmoud Sarsak, standing alongside Eric Cantona, talks about his friend Suleiman al-Obeid, a striker on the Palestine national team, killed by Israeli soldiers while seeking food aid in August — one of over 800 athletes to be killed since October 7. Actors Riz Ahmed, Inua Ellams, Amer Hlehel, Motaz Malhees and Guy Pearce, alongside singer-songwriter El Far3i, perform a haunting sketch, portraying the ghosts of Palestinian men killed by Israel. “What are you eating — bread? Where did you get that?” one man asks. “I died while there was still bread,” the other replies, in a jarring reference to the famine which has engulfed Gaza for many months.
The lasting impression of T4P is not the music, nor the speeches, but the political message repeated throughout the evening: sanctions must be placed on Israel. Given the British government’s obstinate refusal to see the Gaza genocide for what it is, that goal might still seem distant. But T4P itself shows how opinions are changing. As Eno has pointed out, a year ago, no major London venue would have considered hosting an event for Palestine; now, Wembley becomes a sea of Palestinian flags. That, surely, can give us hope.
—Gabriel Polley
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