Madonna urges Pope Leo to go to Gaza ‘before it is too late'
It comes following a recent strike which killed a prominent Al Jazeera correspondent and four of his colleagues, who were sheltering outside al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City on Sunday night.
A post shared by Madonna (@madonna)
The incident marked the first time during the war that Israel's military has swiftly claimed responsibility after a journalist was killed in a strike.
Madonna said: 'Most Holy Father, please go to Gaza and bring your light to the children before it's too late. As a mother, I cannot bear to watch their suffering.
'The children of the world belong to everyone.
'You are the only one of us who cannot be denied entry.
'We need the humanitarian gates to be fully opened to save these innocent children.
'There is no more time. Please say you will go. Love, Madonna.'
In the caption of her post she said it was her son Rocco's birthday and that 'the best gift I can give to him as a Mother – is to ask everyone to do what they can to help save the innocent children caught in the crossfire in Gaza.'
She added: 'I am not pointing fingers, placing blame or taking sides. Everyone is suffering. Including the mothers of the hostages. I pray that they are released as well.'
The singer also asked for donations to three different organisations.
In July, Pope Leo, who became the first US head of the Catholic Church in May, renewed his call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, asking the international community to respect international laws and the obligation to protect civilians.
'I appeal to the international community to observe humanitarian law and respect the obligation to protect civilians as well as the prohibition of collective punishment, the indiscriminate use of force, and the forced displacement of populations,' he said.
In July, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said the UK will recognise a Palestinian state in September unless Israel agrees to meet certain conditions, including addressing the humanitarian crisis, implementing a ceasefire and reviving the prospect of a two-state solution.
Earlier in the month he told Channel 5 that people have seen the 'images of starvation' in Gaza and added that 'the British public can see it and there's a sense of revulsion of what they're seeing'.
At the weekend, hundreds of people were arrested for supporting banned group Palestine Action at a protest in central London.
The Met confirmed on Sunday that 522 people were held for displaying an item in support of a proscribed organisation, out of 532 total arrests made during the policing operation.
The move to ban the organisation was announced after two Voyager aircraft were damaged at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire on June 20, an incident claimed by Palestine Action, which police said caused around £7 million worth of damage.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The National
30 minutes ago
- The National
Dale Vince refuses to remove Palestinian flag from Ecotricity HQ
The Ecotricity boss confirmed he intends to challenge the requirement for planning permission by the Stroud district council, which said flying the flag of a state not recognised by the UK counts as an advertisement under town and country planning law and requires permission. Vince has argued that the giant Palestinian flag, which can be seen hanging from the front of the Ecotricity headquarters in Stroud, Gloucestershire, is legal under planning rules. He said planning law states that 'any country's national flag' can be flown without permission and that because Palestine is recognised as a sovereign nation by 147 of the 193 UN member states, the flag falls within the meaning of a 'country flag'. READ MORE: Pro-Palestine protesters greet JD Vance as he lands in Scotland 'We believe the council are wrong to claim this flag needs planning permission and we'd like to establish that for the benefit of others,' Vince told Stroud Times. 'We will not be removing the flag of Palestine from our building. Or applying for planning permission for it. 'Nobody ever got asked to take down a Ukrainian flag. With Palestine it's different and much of this is due to a shadowy group of lawyers acting for Israel. 'They've bullied several councils into forcing the removal of flags and into event cancellations – it's a pernicious stifling of free speech on behalf of a foreign power.' (Image: Simon Marper/PA Wire) Vince has long spoken up for the Palestinian people and received £40,000 in damages from the publisher of the Daily Mail after the newspaper falsely alleged that he supports the proscribed terrorist group Hamas. Vince said he did not accept that a Jewish or Israeli resident in Stroud would feel threatened by the Palestinian flag on his business's building. 'Obviously, what Hamas did on October 7th [2023] was an atrocity but the atrocity visited on Palestine in return in the last two years is off the charts,' he said. 'It's unimaginably bad and this is from a democratic country that we call an ally, not from a terrorist organisation known as Hamas. So they're not comparable and I don't think anybody that's Israeli should look at the Palestinian flag and feel threatened. I don't understand that. 'This is not the flag of Hamas and these are the shadows that UK Lawyers for Israel operate within, conflating the flag of a country with the flag of a terrorist organisation.' Stroud council said it received public complaints about the flag, so 'officers were obliged to take advice on the matter' and had no option but to police planning regulations as required by legislation, the Times has reported. The council said that the display of the flag is currently subject to a live planning enforcement investigation, stating: 'The display of the unauthorised advertisement at Lion House is subject to a live planning enforcement investigation. 'We remain committed to applying planning regulations fairly and consistently, and we will provide guidance to anyone seeking clarification on advertisement consent requirements.'
The Herald Scotland
4 hours ago
- The Herald Scotland
The absurdity and horror of life in a time of genocide in Gaza
It happens with dread regularity: cooking dinner on the barbecue as the radio begins playing reports of starvation in Gaza. My plate sickening me, revolting me. I eat my lunch while the TV shows children with their brains blown out. I open social media on holiday and am confronted with the reality of genocide. Human beings are being pounded with bombs, starved and then shot as they scrabble for food at aid stations. We're witnessing live-streamed genocide. This is hell. I don't want to look away. I must look, because to not look is to not know, and we must know. Read More: I am not, I hope, a stupid man, or someone incapable of processing their emotions, but I don't know how to fit what I see, read and hear into the plodding reality of my day-to-day life. I'm not sure what it says about my humanity that I can look at pictures of a land levelled to ash, then get in my car and go shopping. There's an absurd horror to how we all - everyone and every government across the west - is responding to what's happening in Gaza and being done to the Palestinian people. That sense of absurdity clashing up against horror reaches from the level of the lone individual - how a plate of food can accuse me like an indictment - to the level of a society or nation. I watched the British satirist John Oliver on television this week feel compelled to prove to his viewers repeatedly - mounting evidence upon evidence - that Israel is starving the people of Gaza. Why must he be made to do this? Can't we all see what's happening with our own eyes? Do we require proof recounted endlessly? Britain arrests hundreds of ordinary men and women as terrorists for daring to hold signs reading: 'I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action.' These people are the conscience of our country. Many are elderly, respected in their communities. It isn't an act of terrorism to speak out against genocide. It isn't an act of terrorism to defend an organisation which protests genocide. It isn't an act of terrorism to spray-paint planes in protest against genocide. If Palestine Action members break laws of trespass or criminal damage, then charge them with that. Don't make terrorists out of protestors. Don't tell ordinary citizens they're terrorist sympathisers. Palestine Action at Trump Turnberry (Image: Milo Chandler) As protestors were dragged away by police, Benjamin Netanyahu prepared to increase the attack on Gaza. Dear God, what does that even mean? How can you increase what's already beyond bearing? More than 50,000 children have been killed in Gaza. Yet only now is the British government preparing to 'urgently accelerate' efforts to bring around 100 badly injured children here for medical treatment. Isn't this madness? Isn't it all madness? Amid this absurdity in the face of unspeakable horror, Israel stands accused of crimes including genocide. The World Health Organisation says starvation in Gaza is 'man-made'. Amnesty International and Médecins Sans Frontières concluded that Israel is conducting genocide. Israeli groups B'Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights say the country's conduct constitutes genocide. Israel is being investigated for genocide at the International Court of Justice. Mirjana Spoljaric, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, says 'humanity is failing in Gaza … It should really shock our collective conscience … It will haunt us'. Lord Sumption, a former UK Supreme Court Justice, said: 'Genocide is a question of intent. It means killing, maiming or imposing intolerable conditions on a national or ethnic group with intent to destroy them in whole or in part. 'Statements by Netanyahu and his ministers suggest that the object of current operations is to force the Arab population of Gaza to leave by killing and starving them if they stay. These things make genocide the most plausible explanation for what is now happening.' The UN committee investigating 'Israeli practices affecting the human rights' of Palestinians said 'Israel's warfare in Gaza is consistent with the characteristics of genocide'. In the wake of the Hamas October 7 atrocities which began this monstrous period of history, Netanyahu said: 'You must remember what Amalek has done to you, says our Holy Bible. And we do remember.' The quotation refers to God commanding the destruction of the Amalekites. Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said: 'We are fighting human animals and we act accordingly.' Finance minister Bezalel Smotrich said Israel had 'returned Khan Yunis to the Stone Age'. Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari boasted Gaza would be turned into a 'city of tents'. Politicians have variously called for 'erasing all of Gaza from the face of the earth' and 'crushing and flattening Gaza'. The former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said that Israel is 'committing war crimes'. He added: 'What we are doing in Gaza now is a war of devastation: indiscriminate, limitless, cruel and criminal killing of civilians. It's the result of government policy - knowingly, evilly, maliciously, irresponsibly dictated.' Israel's government denies the accusations against it, as do many of its supporters around the world and here at home. One could go on: recounting the blood, the deaths, the accusations, the rebuttals. The absurd horror. All I can see is mountains of dead. All I can see is once sensible people and governments standing in the shadow of crimes which history will never forget, too dumbfounded or scared or self-interested to act or speak up. Why can't we just say what we see? We saw that Hamas committed monstrous acts and we rightly raised our voices in revulsion because our shared humanity demanded that response. Since then monstrous acts have been committed by Israel and our shared humanity demands we respond with outrage. Our shared humanity doesn't demand that we arrest those who speak in defence of the weakest. It demands that the hostages be freed, and it demands that the Palestinian people be freed with them. Neil Mackay is the Herald's Writer-at-Large. He's a multi-award winning investigative journalist, author of both fiction and non-fiction, and a filmmaker and broadcaster. He specialises in intelligence, security, crime, social affairs, cultural commentary, and foreign and domestic politics
New Statesman
4 hours ago
- New Statesman
The lost art of political oratory
LONDON, ENGLAND - JULY 17: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer speaks at a civil society summit on July 17, 2025 in London, England. (Photo by Frank Augstein -) I am writing this from a crammed Edinburgh Festival where the appetite for live shows is close to insatiable. Everywhere there are insane queues for the latest performances. Evidently people ache to be away from their phones and social media for a bit and gather to watch a performance or a performer. There are limits to being on X alone. I am one of those who ache. I perform my own show in Edinburgh and elsewhere on the dramas and characters that shape the current wild world of politics. But above all I am a spectator. I watch fascinated as a single person alone on a stage can hold an audience for an hour or more. For the best solo performers there are no props or music. They have words and their voices to mouth them. The audience is bound together by the simple magic. I watch the best stand-ups throughout the year and only recently have I realised why I do so. They fill a big gap. I used to travel fair distances to watch the great political speakers at live events, often for work but not always. Now the orators have disappeared. The political stage is silent as their stand-up equivalents flourish. I would not rush to the end of my road to see many contemporary political speakers. Keir Starmer will never cast a spell over an audience, a problem for him and one reason why he is accused of lacking purpose. His cabinet has qualities but a capacity to hold an audience with a speech is not one of them. There are no Michael Heseltines on the Tory benches to excite activists and those that might be vaguely interested in politics. Currently only Nigel Farage holds big meetings that captivate his audiences but he is not an especially impressive speaker. He stands out because he is better than anyone else at the moment. Jeremy Corbyn might start to pack out halls again with his new party but he is not remotely in the same league as his hero, Tony Benn. The so-called mainstream parties that once erupted with powerful speakers are bereft of such public advocates. Most are cautiously robotic. A few, like Wes Streeting, are brilliant interviewees but do not make memorable speeches. Others try too hard to excite but in their transparent effort become less interesting as speechmakers. Robert Jenrick springs to mind. His speech at last year's Tory conference was dismal on many levels. The decline in oratory is relatively recent. As a student in the early 1980s I was a regular attender, like Corbyn, of Benn's live events, each of them packed. I never heard Benn make a bad speech. I used to take girlfriends to them for a night out, though the relationships did not last long. But Benn was funny, seeking to make the connections between disparate current events and historical ones. Before long he had moved from Jesus Christ to the Chartists, then the suffragettes, before his prediction that if Labour followed his ideas it would win the next election. The rapturous response was part of the theatre of it all. I was not necessarily converted to Bennism but his rallies made me hugely excited about politics. I saw it could be as thrilling as any rock gig or conventional theatre. Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month Subscribe My view was reinforced when, as a student journalist, in 1983 I saw Neil Kinnock speak at a make-or-break by-election in Darlington, a contest Labour had to win for various highly charged reasons. The hall was so crammed, there was a huge overspill gathering. Kinnock's style was very different from Benn's and by then he had defined himself against 'Bennism'. He was speaking as a loyalist whereas Benn had the advantage of being the romantic rebel taking on the leadership. This did not stop Kinnock from holding the voters in thrall, his style that of a funny, passionate revivalist preacher. The crowds left resolved to vote for Kinnock's party in that crucial by-election. This was before he became leader. Kinnock did not win a general election but some of his speeches as leader will be cited forever, while tedious addresses by those moving carefully up the ministerial ladder are forgotten as they are being delivered. There was a similar charge of electricity when Michael Heseltine spoke at Conservative conferences. He still possesses the magic. A couple of months ago I interviewed him at the Cambridge Book Festival. They cheered when he walked in and when he left, captivated throughout. There were others to the right of Heseltine who could light up the stage, most famously Enoch Powell, though I never saw him live. The recordings show how he did it: the mannered intensity, a sense of heightened anticipation as he developed his provocative arguments. The speedy decline in oratory and huge public events began in the 1990s. There was a growing recognition that most voters only saw politicians delivering a soundbite on TV bulletins. That was therefore what mattered, politics compressed to 15 seconds. Tony Blair was a good speaker and an even better interviewee but he was part of the era where live events began to disappear. Only a few voters would attend. The rest would not be swayed by a mesmerising speech, so why bother making one? The current government's favoured form of communication seems to be allowing Sky's Beth Rigby to warn Keir Starmer how useless he is in near weekly exchanges between political editor and prime minister. Another favoured vehicle is the daily broadcasting round where an exhausted minister wakes at 5am and prepares for eight interviews in two hours where they are told by self-obsessed interviewers that 'all our viewers/listeners' want to know why the government has let them down. This is unlikely to inspire voters to engage in politics, let alone be excited by it. The deep disillusionment and boredom with democratic politics point to why the loss of great political performers matters. Not many can attend live events, but the sense of political vitality they generate goes well beyond the confines of the physical gathering. Naive broadcast editors agonise about how to attract younger audiences. Stand-ups do so with ease in Edinburgh and elsewhere. Meanwhile others are drawn into politics by the excitement. Years ago I recall Sadiq Khan hosting a gathering where Kinnock was the guest speaker. The future London Mayor said it was hearing a Kinnock speech that made him want to enter politics. He was by no means alone. Tories have said the same of Heseltine. Who would say that about a current politician? For big political figures the live event has a big advantage. It forces them to frame arguments for a speech. Governments or opposition parties cannot be shapeless if key figures are required to impress audiences by conveying their sense of purpose. This speechless Labour administration would have no choice but to think more attentively about what they are for. The live event should be only a small part of the political repertoire. Many other outlets matter too. But its disappearance altogether outside the party conference season is a terrible loss. It leads to a drab politics without colour. No wonder voters turn away. All the energy in Edinburgh is available for politics. But that requires big politicians to come to life fearlessly and address voters with the art of the great political teachers of the recent past. Technocratic proclamations are dull. Boredom is dangerous. Meanwhile in the absence of any great political speeches I plan to see Stewart Lee several times this autumn. He can cast a spell. Steve Richards presents 'Rock N Roll Politics' at the Edinburgh Festival… a different show each day [See also: Visions of an English civil war] Related
