Last Thursday at London's Wembley Arena, a sold-out show shared a message of Palestinian solidarity with over 12,000 attendees and hundreds of thousands of viewers online.
Led by a host of Palestinian and ally voices, Together For Palestine raised over $2M for the Palestinian-led organisations at the frontline of the Gaza crisis, such as Taawon, the Palestine Children's Relief Fund, and the Palestine Medical Relief Society. It was the largest event of its kind in the UK's history. (You can watch the livestream for free on YouTube here.)
While the event was co-produced by the English musician and activist Brian Eno, it was curated by Gazan artist Malak Mattar, whose paintings celebrate Palestinian life on the walls of many living rooms around the world, including mine.
In four galvanizing hours, Palestinians like oud musician Adnan Joubran and journalist Yara Eid took center stage, sharing testimony of Israel's atrocities in Gaza and insisting on the complexity of Palestinian culture.
Joining them were global celebrities like Riz Ahmed, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Florence Pugh.
(A friend of the Going Places platform, Matt Bowles, was in attendance and reported from the benches on Instagram.)
"I hope tonight’s gig will have the same galvanising effect as the 1988 Nelson Mandela concert – and give people courage to speak out about Gaza," said the benefit's co-producer Brien Eno in The Guardian's opinion section.
In the summer of 1988, a benefit concert at Wembley Stadium celebrated the 70th birthday of Nelson Mandela, then a political prisoner. Broadcast to over 600 million viewers worldwide, it made Mandela a household name and likely hastened his eventual release.
Two years after the concert, negotiations to end apartheid in South Africa started, caving in to international pressure and the growing apartheid boycott and sanctions movement. The final referendum brought down the oppressive rule on March 17, 1992.
(Mandela was not removed from a U.S. terrorist list until 2013, shortly before his death.)
"The concert worked because, then as now, politics sits downstream of culture."
Eno continued:
"The concert worked because, then as now, politics sits downstream of culture. The stories we tell ourselves and each other are how we develop and share our feelings about this world – and other possible worlds. This gives our storytellers – writers, musicians, artists, actors – incredible power to shape the space in which politicians are able to operate."
Change can't come soon enough. Save The Children reports that at least one Palestinian child has been killed every hour on average by the Israeli military over nearly 23 months of the Israeli assault on Gaza. The United Nations has finally joined organizations like Amnesty International and Israel's own B'Tselem in calling Israeli actions in Gaza a genocide.
Still, the momentum is building.
Over 400 music artists like Massive Attack and Kneecap have joined No Music For Genocide, an international cultural boycott of Israel announced just a day before the Wembley Arena concert. The same week, the Game Over Israel campaign called for FIFA to boycott Israeli soccer clubs, repeating the call on a massive billboard in Times Square.
Earlier this month, thousands of Hollywood actors like Joaquin Phoenix and Emma Stone signed the pledge to end complicity, refusing to work with Israeli institutions complicit in the Israeli human rights abuses. Actor Hannah Einbinder shouted 'Free Palestine!' at the end of her Emmys acceptance speech, something that would have been unthinkable even a year ago.
And the Global Sumud Flotilla, the largest civilian maritime mission organized to break Israel's illegal siege on Gaza, is on approach to Gaza right now.
"Relinquish an inch of your privilege, so that an entire people don’t have to lose everything.”
Could this be the watershed moment we need?
Last Thursday's fundraising event brought together over 60 powerful performances from journalists, musicians, actors, athletes, medical doctors, and singers.
But perhaps the most powerful call to action came from Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, who said:
"Stop waiting. Organize. Protest. Demand more from your representatives. Disrupt, strike, boycott. Speak out. Speak out at dinner tables, on streets, online. Relinquish an inch of your privilege, so that an entire people don’t have to lose everything.”
Radostina Boseva is our Founding Member
Radostina Boseva is a film wedding photographer with an editorial flair based in San Francisco.
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