Members of some of Britain’s most celebrated rock bands are to join forces with superstar DJs for a special Artists for Gaza fundraiser to help provide Gaza’s children with desperately needed food, water, and medicine.
Paul Weller, Paul Simonon (The Clash), Paul Cook (Sex Pistols), Suggs (Madness), Jerry Dammers (The Specials) and Bobbie Gillespie (Primal Scream) will DJ at the event, to be held in London on July 27, alongside DJs David Holmes, Gilles Peterson, Howie B and many more.
“This is not just a fundraiser,” the event organisers say. “It’s also a refusal to look away, collective grief and collective joy at how our taxes and national might are being directed. The creative industry is full of beautiful Palestinians, that we have that empathetic bridge to a long-suffering injustice for their children in our name.
“Expect community. Expect feeling. Expect resistance.”
Tickets are on sale now for the fundraiser, which will be held across four rooms at the Century Club in London, 61-63 Shaftesbury Avenue, W1D 6LQ.
Last year, Paul Weller curated a Gig For Gaza benefit at the O2 Academy Brixton in London to benefit charities working to alleviate the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
Weller was joined at the December 13 show joined by Primal Scream, Paloma Faith, Kneecap, and more.
Asked by The Guardian last year about his support for the Palestinian people, Weller said, “Am I against genocides and ethnic cleansing? Yes I am, funnily enough. I can’t understand why more people aren’t up in arms about what’s going on.”
Israel has been accused of carrying out genocidal acts during the ongoing war in Gaza by numerous organisations, including the UN Human Rights Council. Israel’s military campaign, sparked by the October 2023 terrorist attack by Hamas on Israeli soil that saw around 1,200 people killed and 251 people taken hostage, has resulted in the death of over 58,000 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. 58 hostages from the October 7, 2023 attack remain held in captivity by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Israel has denied any genocidal intent, which requires certain thresholds to be met in order to be legally recognised; a case brought forward by South Africa to The International Court of Justice accusing Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians is ongoing.
The conflict has been on-going for decades, with official UN figures for the 15 years before the 2023 escalation recording 7277 Palestinian deaths and 162,121 Palestinian injuries in occupied Palestinian territory and Israel since 2008, and 368 Israeli deaths and 6,670 Israeli injuries during the same time span in the region.