U2 changed the lyrics of their hit song “Pride (In the Name of Love)” to honour the hundreds of victims killed in a music festival attack led by Hamas militants.
On Sunday (8 October), during the Irish rock band’s latest show at the new Sphere in Las Vegas, Bono, 62, dedicated the rendition of their 2003 song to “our brothers and sisters – who they themselves were singing at the Supernova Sukott festival in Israel”.
“We sing for those. Our people, our kind of people, music people. Playful, experimental people. Our kind of people. We sing for them,” he told the crowd.
“In the light of what’s happened in Israel and Gaza, a song about non-violence seems somewhat ridiculous, even laughable, but our prayers have always been for peace and for non-violence… But our hearts and our anger, you know where that’s pointed. So sing with us… and those beautiful kids at that music festival.”
Instead of referring to the death of Martin Luther King Jr as is done in the original song, Bono launched into a rewritten first verse: “Early morning, October 7, the sun is rising in the desert sky/ Stars of David, they took your life but they could not take your pride.”
After repeating “but they could not take your pride” three times, he then led the audience in a wordless refrain.
U2 join other celebrities, including Madonna and Natalie Portman, in reacting reacted to the deadly conflict.
Madonna said the situation in Israel was “devastating” in a statement posted on Instagram, adding that “conflicts can never be resolved with violence” and her heart “goes out to Israel”.
Wonder Woman star Gal Gadot, who served the two mandatory years in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) before launching her Hollywood career, shared several social media posts in support of Israel over the weekend.
“I stand with Israel you should too. The world cannot sit on the fence when these horrific acts of terror are happening!” she captioned one of her posts.
So far, more than 260 bodies have been recovered from the Supernova music festival site, with the number still rising. Rescue agency Zaka said that the bodies “haven’t all been collected yet”.
At least 900 people have been killed in Israel, local media has reported, while almost 700 have been killed in Gaza, with thousands more wounded. Palestinian militants claimed to be holding over 130 civilian hostages.
Abu Obeida, the spokesman of Hamas’s military wing, said that every Israeli bomb hitting Gaza “without prior warning” would be followed by “the execution of one the hostages of civilians we are holding”.
At least 10 British citizens are reported to be feared dead or missing in Israel. British citizen Jacob Marlowe is also among the missing.
Follow The Independent’s live blog of the Israel-Hamas conflict here.
