Jennifer Horgan: Bono was right to criticise Hamas along with Israel - peacemakers are rarely popular
Palestinians at a school used as a shelter by displaced residents after it was hit by an Israeli military strike that killed at least 36 people, in Gaza City on Monday. Photo: AP/Jehad Alshrafi
The criticism has been rolling in against Bono online, in response to his recent speech when receiving one of songwriting’s highest honours – Fellowship of the Ivors Academy. Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton, and Larry Mullen Jr are the first-ever Irish songwriters that the academy has inducted into fellowship during its 81-year history.
You’d think we’d be happy to celebrate with them, but this criticism of Bono’s speech has overshadowed any possibility of national pride. It’s nothing new given that plenty of Irish people find him irritating – superior or something…We’ve never been all that good at pinpointing our disdain.
So, what was it that he said that was so wrong this time? Well, he began his speech by asking Hamas to release their hostages.
"Hamas, release the hostages. Stop the war. Israel, be released from Benjamin Netanyahu and the far-right fundamentalists that twist your sacred text." The words after Hamas focus on criticism of Israel. No mind. None of that counts. He shouldn’t have mentioned Hamas – so the criticism goes.
These critics have a point, of course. The actions of Hamas now, if not in October 2023, shrink into insignificance when compared with the current actions of Israel. We all carry a deep pain, knowing there are thousands of innocent babies, children and adults starving to death in Gaza as we go about our daily lives.
There are trucks stuffed with supplies that are not being let in to help these poor people. These are the darkest of days. We know it is happening and yet we can do so little.
And so, people are understandably filled with rage that Bono mentioned Hamas, the word seeming to equalise both sides, as if both are similarly culpable, comparable in their cruelty.
I understand the feeling. At a gut level, I agree with it. Bono’s words felt wrong; they landed discordantly. But our outrage brings us no closer to peace. It helps nobody. If anything, it pushes peace further away.
The Israeli state has lost all humanity. Their genocidal assault proves their inability to see Palestinian people as human beings. Israel has ignored Ireland’s protests for months. It is continuing to ignore the wave of criticism rising against them now – from hitherto silent nations. Condemnation of Israel will always be heard as antisemitism by Netanyahu and his government.
So, what is to be done? I would argue that as things stand, only consequences matter. Anything we can do to stop this genocide is worth trying.
Bono’s criticism of Netanyahu means more, carries more weight, following at least an acknowledgement of Hamas. He understands the Israeli mindset - that since October 7th – anything goes. If he were to have omitted the mention of Hamas, no Israeli or Israeli sympathiser would have listened to the rest of his speech.
He understood fully what he was doing. He knew that the most committed campaigners for Palestine would hate him for it. He knew he would be attacked, ripped to shreds online, and yet he did it. He mentioned Hamas. He mentioned Hamas because his concern is primarily for the “children in the rubble”.
It is a truly rebellious act, as he put it, – calling for peace. Peace is rarely a popular word. To so many people it sounds like cowardice. We are natural side-takers. Our side-taking fuels our passion for support. It also increases the likelihood and longevity of war.
Peacekeepers don’t have the privilege of taking sides – even when the ‘right’ side is blatantly obvious.
A genuine call for peace must drain itself of all side-taking to have any real impact. Even when one side is clearly the victim and one side clearly the perpetrator. None of those matters, only peace does.
I have no doubt where Bono’s heart resides. He is fully horrified, as we all are, about what is happening to human beings in Gaza. Speaking to Brendan O’Connor last weekend he made it clear however, that he is not interested in "competitive empathy", something I have written about for this paper. How right he is. We have become obsessed by the "look" of our actions, regardless of their consequences.
Bono is interested in consequences. During the RTÉ interview, he recalled being egged for standing beside a Republican president and being heavily criticised for accepting a medal of freedom from Joe Biden. He countered the criticism by reminding listeners that his work with Biden saved lives.
It’s quite the understatement. Through ONE, Bono has lobbied heads of state and legislatures worldwide, ensuring the implementation of global health and development programs, including the PEPFAR AIDS program, which has saved approximately 25 million lives.
Commentators criticising Bono for mentioning Hamas need to remind themselves that typing something online in itself is not an act of heroism. Sometimes we need to quiet our own emotions, even our own just allegiances, no matter how powerful, to get the consequences we want. This is exactly what Bono is doing.
Is the man perfect? No, I’m certain he is not. He’s walking around like the rest of us – full of his own demons no doubt, on his own journey, failing and learning all the time. He has an awful lot of money, and he likes to keep it. But he is committed to peace.
If Bono is out in the cold, Kneecap are warming themselves by the rosy fire of our adoration. The Irish people have fallen in love with their absolute devotion to Palestine. Like most people, I agree with their commitment to an absolutely devastated, ravaged people.
But their rhetoric won’t get us anywhere. It will simply make them increasingly popular. Yes, they are on the right side of history, but side-taking is antithetical to peace.
I’ve been discussing the nature of peace in school this week. On Tuesday I found myself in a quiet classroom discussing Eavan Boland’s Poem with a Leaving Cert student. Written in the 70s, it’s one I’ve been reflecting on since.
The poem was written in response to a photograph of a firefighter carrying the body of a dead child from the debris of the Dublin bombing in May 1974. It addresses the deceased, acknowledging that adults’ “idol talk” has cost him or her their life. “Our times have robbed your cradle” she says to the imagined body. She prays that we, the adults, can find a “new language” to prevent future deaths.
We have not found that language. However morally right we are in condemning the Israeli state, our unwillingness to hear any mention of Hamas by Bono is ineffective. It forgets what we are trying to achieve – peace. An end to killing.
Kneecap are doing the right thing but that is different from doing the most effective thing. We need people like Kneecap to speak out. But for effectiveness, we need Bono and all peacemakers like him.
My hope is that Bono is in a room somewhere reminding himself of the criticism peacekeepers receive in their time. Certain unionists and nationalists despised Hume.
I have no doubt that as someone who lived through the discrimination against Catholics in Northern Ireland, he found it harder to reach across one side of the divide than the other. But reach across he did – not because he thought both sides were necessarily equal but because he knew his opinion, and indeed right and wrong, no longer mattered.
Any words that might stop Israel now are worth uttering. Alongside that one all-important one. Peace.
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