\n<\/p>\n
\n\tU2<\/a> shared a lengthy post<\/a> on their website clarifying the band members\u2019 individual stances on Israel<\/a> and Gaza<\/a>. \u201cWe are not experts in the politics of the region, but we want our audience to know where we each stand,\u201d the Irish group wrote.<\/p>\n \n\tEach band member\u2014Bono<\/a>, the Edge<\/a>, Adam Clayton, and Larry Mullen Jr.\u2014shared a statement with their thoughts on the ongoing war, which has transpired since Hamas\u2019 attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Bono noted that since then he has \u201cgenerally tried to stay out of the politics of the Middle East.\u201d \u201cThis was not humility, more uncertainty in the face of obvious complexity,\u201d he said. \u201cI have over recent months written about the war in Gaza in The Atlantic<\/em> and spoken about it in The Observer<\/em>, but I circled the subject.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe frontman explained that he has chosen to speak up more directly now after seeing photographs of starving people in Gaza. \u201cThe images of starving children on the Gaza Strip brought me back to a working trip to a food station in Ethiopia my wife Ali and I made 40 years ago next month following U2\u2019s participation in Live Aid 1985,\u201d he wrote. \u201cAnother man-made famine. To witness chronic malnutrition up close would make it personal for any family, especially as it affects children. Because when the loss of non-combatant life en masse appears so calculated\u2026 especially the deaths of children, then \u2018evil\u2019 is not a hyperbolic adjective\u2026 in the sacred text of Jew, Christian, and Muslim it is an evil that must be resisted.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tHe noted that he does not equate Palestinians with Hamas. \u201cGiven our own historic experience of oppression and occupation, it\u2019s little wonder so many here in Ireland have campaigned for decades for justice for the Palestinian people,\u201d Bono write. <\/p>\n \n\tHe added, \u201cWe know Hamas are using starvation as a weapon in the war, but now so too is Israel and I feel revulsion for the moral failure. The Government of Israel is not the nation of Israel, but the Government of Israel led by Benjamin Netanyahu<\/a> today deserves our categorical and unequivocal condemnation. There is no justification for the brutality he and his far right government have inflicted on the Palestinian people\u2026 in Gaza\u2026 in the West Bank.\u201d<\/p>\n