To feel sorry for Ed Sheeran.....

And Macklemore. He got dropped from gigs for saying it. Lots of people don't want celebrities speaking on political matters, something along the lines of who do they think they are, useful idiots, jumping on bandwagons, it's complicated etc etc.

Oh dear. Gillian Anderson was appealing on behalf of War Child, through her personal Instagram and on theirs. She did not hijack someone else's concert. Completely different scenarios. People were not objecting to her appeal they were demanding to know why she wasnt speaking about Gaza as well or instead of. Sudan is nothing to do with Gaza.

Why oh dear? You were just complaining about how people can't speak about Sudan now you are making excuses for why someone was stopped from speaking about Sudan? Do you want people to speak about Sudan or not?!

Support acts don't 'hijack' other people's concerts, they are a performer/performers who perform before the main act. It's all pre agreed.

Don't forget an additional 120 Iranian children killed by US/Israeli airstrikes on their school

Was “Free Palestine” pre agreed? I don’t think so or it wouldn’t have caused all this controversy.

People were not objecting to her appeal they were demanding to know why she wasnt speaking about Gaza as well or instead of. Sudan is nothing to do with Gaza.
And those people were wrong and where I am there are many online and television appeals for humanitarian support in Sudan it's not forgotten, so it's hard to know who these people making the comments were, there were also plenty defending her.

Tbh the only time I ever hear anyone supportive of Israel speaking about Sudan is to use the Sudanese situation to have a dig at those speaking out about Gaza. If those people could actually speak out about Susan rather than using it as an excuse to berate others they may hold some credibility and garner some much needed support. I manage to support both causes with very little difficulty

I can't comment particularly on your experience as I don't know tlyou. But you only need to look at her Instagram where she made the appeal to see the what about gaza comments. Its a pattern that is repeated over and over again, however much you try to deny it. Here on mumsnet people will twist themselves into pretzels to justify the loud obsession with gaza and the low hum of commentary on other horrors. Really, it quite funny that anyone pretends otherwise. If it didnt happen people wouldn't go to such lengths to explain it.

I'm not trying to deny it but posts on Instagram are not necessarily reflective of how the wider public view things. There are multiple ngo appeals for humanitarian support and aid and many countries pledging aid.

Here on mumsnet people will twist themselves into pretzels to justify the loud obsession with gaza and the low hum of commentary on other horrors.
Where's your thread on Sudan? You're as guilty as anyone else on focusing on one area.

As far as I am aware the international community are pretty united in their stance on Sudan and are pledging humanitarian aid and support, I'm not aware of any Western governments selling weapons in Sudan or actively supporting either side so it doesn't need a thread of agreement on mn because we all, I assume, feel the same way about it. I do agree that the media needs to focus more on Sudan and raise the profile of what is happening there.

However, maybe stop reducing their suffering to point score and using Sudanese victims as political pawns. It's extremely disrespectful to their plight.

It does sometimes feel as if a great number of pro Palestinians see it a a binary black/ white issue.

I don’t think Macklemore ever dressed up as a caricature of a Hamas member but he did mock Jewish people ( not Israelis / Netanyahu- but Jewish people as a whole)

And in February 2025, a member of Kneecap posted a picture reading a book of statements by the Hezbollah leader titled, “Voice of Hezbollah the Statements of Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.”

During their performance at the April 2025, Coachella music festival, Kneecap said “Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people... It is being enabled by the US... Fuck Israel/Free Palestine.”
But at no point have any of these celebrities shown an understanding that it is not binary -there are multiple “bad guys” on both sides and victims on both sides

People keep talking about this 'obsession' with Gaza like it's a bad thing? 21,000 children have been killed so far, 70% of their land has been taken, 92% of their homes have been destroyed, 100% of their hospitals have been attacked, entire ancient cities bulldozed to rubble. Why is everyone not speaking about it? It's a man made catastrophy, on a polpulation level it's one of the most deadly wars on children in decades and now the people who have killed all of those children have a plan to ethnically cleanse them. Why would anyone be silent on that?

If this were 80,000 Israeli children, the same people who lament the 'obsession with Gaza' would be 'obsessed' too. There would be no 'what about Sudan, we all know that that is the truth. Would you sit silently by, tell performers that it's not the place to talk about it, mock people who care about those 80000 dead Israeli children and call them' obsessed? That's an honest question. How loud would you be if you were watching Israeli children be gathered into plastic bags by their parents as the British government shrugged and America sent more bombs? I know that I would be loud about that too, even if people called me racist and even if people said that my loudness made them uncomfortable, would you be?

Im not going over this again and again and again. By any objective standard the interest in gaza far outweighs that in any other conflict or human rights catastrophe in the world in recent years. The facts are out there and easy for anyone to evaluate if they want to.

Well said @DeterminedRat its like some people want us to politely turn a blind eye and shut up because they are finding all this talk of dead children and ethnic cleansing just so very boring! Or perhaps (more likely) its just too inconvenient to hear about it because it happens to be Israel doing the killing.....

But hey ho unfortunately the whataboutery, the minimising, the deflection, the accusations of obsession, or anti semitism, will keep on coming.

https://www.aljazeera.com/amp/news/2021/6/24/northeast-nigeria-conflict-killed-more-than-300000-children-un

https://moderndiplomacy.eu/2026/06/01/the-unreported-dimensions-of-nigerias-christian-genocide/

The suffering in many parts of the world is unimaginable.
I do wish that the plight of Christian communities in Northern Nigeria got a fraction of the attention given to Gaza.

By any objective standard the scale of devastation in Gaza and the inaction of foreign governments far outweighs that of any other conflict. Never have I seen someone saying that the people of Sudan brought it on themselves, voting against ceasefires, refusing to call purposeful the starvation of children wrong, telling people to shut up talking about all of the dead children because why do you even care. Never have I see that happen. There is no other conflict in recent years that you can compare it to. It doesn't exist.

No where on the Internet will you find middle aged mums arguing about why it's ok to stop food and aid to children, they are probably being starved by their fat parents anyway about any other conflict. That's why it's generated so much Internet debate. It's a unique situation.

Except that doesn't happen does it? Noone says its ok to starve children. Noone says shut up talking about dead children. You are completely misrepresenting the discussions on here.

Thanks for illustrating my point what you have posted is appalling and unimaginable and still no where close to what happened on Gaza in 2.5 years. Double the number of children in Gaza on a population level were killed in 2.5 years than were killed in North East Nigeria in 12.

Gaza is unique in the ferocity of what happened, the numbers killed, the denial that anything wrong was happening, the huge effort that has been made to make people stop talking about it, the mocking of the people who care.

We can't pretend that it isn't unique. That's not to say that awful things aren't happening elsewhere and if I saw someone asking people why do they care about killed children in Sudan or laughing at fat mums with starving children there I'd go to bat for them online too.

In 'real life' donate what I can to various childrens charities helping in conflict zones, I wrote to the government and contact local representatives when I think change needs to be made. I try to educate my self on where I am spending my money and what I may be funding.

But online everyone agrees that man made atrocities in Sudan and Congo and Ukraine etc etc are horrific and need to end, I don't feel the need to post to defend the poor parents who watching their children starve or the poor children who are being blown pieces because no one is questioning whether what has happened to them is appalling.

They absolutely have. I could name one poster who wasn't just saying it's OK to starve children she was sneering at the mum photographed with her starving child if it were allowed. Macklemore was told to shut up talking about dead children. That's what this thread is about.

Of course what is happening in Israel and Gaza needs to end.
But there are victims ( the ordinary citizens) and villains on both sides. ( Hamas/ Hezbollah/ Iran/ Netanyahu’s government/ extremist settlers )
The “Fuck Israel” brigade never acknowledge that

Again, a complete misrepresentation of the issue.

No, I don't think so. Say it's because he was 'hijacking a concert', say it's because Jewish people felt 'uncomfortable', say it's because there were children in the audience. It doesn't matter he was still told to shut up in a way people talking about Israelis gathering the body parts of 80000 dead children into plastic bags would never be.

This is utterly disingenuous. You seem to have completely missed the way 7 October was talked about, and the way aspects of it were ignored. People denying what had happened. I am not going to indulge in talking about the details the way you have in your post but things just as bad were said about the absolute horror of the clear up after 7 october. Vicious nasty things said about people making up the horrific torture, abuse and sexual assault. Dreadful things said about the Bibas children. And people absolutely were told to shut up, their pain and their testimony was minimised and not heard. So yes, on a regular basis the experience of Israelis has put down, minimised and ignored.

I'm not being disingenuous at all. If 320,000 Israelis were killed by American bombs in 2 years no one standing on stage would be fired for having the audacity to talk about it. I would bet my house on it.

I think that it is disingenuous to compare an awful terrorist attack(and it was really, really awful) to 2.5years of constant killing, purposeful starvation of a million children, an entire population displaced and entire cities bulldozed to the ground and an open wish to ethnically cleanse the population to where ever will take them. It isn't like for like.

I still haven't heard a viable explanation as to why Free Palestine is such a contentious thing to say. I've heard people say it makes me scared. Why? I get Bob Vylan were aggressive and that could make people feel threatened but asking for freedom? How is that wrong?

Journalists have been reporting from safe zones immediately surrounding Gaza.

A bit like a film journalist reviewing a film by sitting in the car park outside the cinema.

What an odd thing to say. Do you really think a reporter able to hear weapons being used and observe/listen to multiple first hand witnesses and victims is so poorly placed to give relevant information?

Or are you trying to suggest the whole Gaza thing is made up?