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‘Stars of David, They Took Your Life, They Couldn’t Take Your Pride’: U2 Dedicates Song to Israeli Victims of Music Festival Massacre
by Shiryn Ghermezian
Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton of U2 perform during the band’s second night of ‘U2: Achtung Baby Live’ at Sphere on Sept. 30, 2023 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Photo: ImageSpace/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect
U2 frontman Bono offered his condolences and dedicated a song on Sunday night to the hundreds of young men and women who were murdered the prior day by Hamas terrorists at the Supernova music festival in Israel near the Gaza Strip.
“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,” the Irish singer told the crowd gathered at the band’s show at The Sphere in Las Vegas. “But our hearts and our anger, you know where that’s pointed. So sing with us … and those beautiful kids at that music festival.”
Bono then began singing Pride (In the Name of Love), which he dedicated to those who died at the music festival. He also changed the track’s closing lyrics to “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.”
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Over 260 people were murdered at the Supernova music festival on Saturday by Hamas terrorists shooting and firing artillery as attendees tried to flee the scene, according to Israeli rescue agency Zaka. As of Monday, some concertgoers were still missing from what the Israeli army spokesperson called the “worst massacre of innocent civilians in Israel’s history.”
On Sunday, Bono told the audience: “We sing for our brothers and sisters, who they themselves were singing at the Supernova Sukkot 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.”
The rocker later told the crowd it had been “a festival of music and peace, can you imaging what these f—kers were doing,” before singing the song MLK.
U2 previously performed at Yarkon Park in Tel Aviv in 1997 and in 2010 announced a concert in Israel the following summer, but ultimately cancelled the performance following pressure from the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel. Bono himself visited Israel in 2012 and U2 dedicated a song to former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres during a 2015 concert in Canada.
The Israeli festival over the weekend had 3,000 attendees and was in the Negev desert by Kibbutz Re’im, which is near the Gaza Strip, where Hamas militants crossed over into Israel early Saturday to launch a large-scale surprise attack.
At least 800 Israelis have been killed since the initial Hamas attack began, according to local Israeli media. Israel launched Operation Iron Swords in response and sent a barrage of rocket attacks to Gaza.
