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Some of the big name celebrities who converged on New York at the weekend need a rocket over their Gaza hypocrisy. Andrew Gardiner<\/strong> reports on Hollowood and big-names running scared.<\/span><\/p>\n You\u2019ve heard them all: big name musicians and movie stars, lamenting the injustice of it all and they crusade, it seems, for whatever fashionable campaign has captured the moment. And while causes like global poverty or renewable energy are worthy, where are these luminaries on the more than <\/span>230,000 dead<\/span><\/a> and injured in Gaza?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In some cases, the answer is \u201cnowhere to be found\u201d. Take the <\/span>celebrity output<\/span><\/a> on Gaza at New York\u2019s Global Citizen festival on Saturday, which was downright demoralising.<\/span><\/p>\n Timed for the weekend after the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), Global Citizen saw the strangest of role-reversals. Days earlier at UNGA, most of the politicians and diplomats we expect nothing from put Gaza <\/span>front and centre<\/span><\/a>, while at Global Citizen, \u2018virtue signalling\u2019 celebs were largely silent on what some have called Israel\u2019s \u201c<\/span>holocaust<\/span><\/a>\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n A rare but notable exception came, not surprisingly, from Palestinian singer Elyanna, who opened the show, wanting \u201cto pray for my homeland in Palestine.\u201d But after that, the world\u2019s most urgent current crisis gave way to <\/span>solar power<\/span><\/a> in Africa or the Amazon rainforest.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n On the latter, actress <\/span>Liza Koshy<\/span><\/a> and \u2018Science Guy\u2019 Bill Nye asked the crowd to hold its collective breath, because the Amazon is the \u201clungs of the Earth.\u201d \u201cIt produces about 20 per cent of the oxygen we breathe worldwide (while) pulling global warming carbon out of our atmosphere at the same time\u201d, Nye explained<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In Australia, precious few celebrities have spoken out against the Genocide. Hugo Weaving went public speaking<\/a> about the \u201cclimate of fear\u201d in the entertainment industry, a climate clearly fearful of backlash by Zionist arts donors and craven administrators.<\/p>\n Courageous pianist Jayson Gillham continues to fight<\/a> efforts by the Melbourne Symphony to silence him over Gaza, and after a backlash by the arts community when Creative Australia caved<\/a> to the Israel lobby, artist Khaled Sabsabi and curator Michael Dagostino were reinstated as Australia\u2019s representatives to the 2026 Venice Biennale.<\/p>\n Guy Pearce is notable as one of Australia\u2019s few big-name actors to speak out<\/a> against the \u201cnormalised horrors\u201d in Palestine. Others have been as quiet as the proverbial church mouse. The suppression of free speech and expression is however a global phenomenon, as evinced by events in New York over the weekend.<\/p>\n Among other things, Global Citizen and its founder, Melbourne\u2019s own Hugh Evans, present themselves as central elements in a movement for advocacy on famines stretching from Haiti to Sudan, not unlike Bob Geldof and <\/span>Live Aid<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n But Geldof has been scathing in his<\/span> condemnation<\/span><\/a> of Israel\u2019s Gaza onslaught, which \u201cenrages (him) beyond the point of comprehension\u201d. \u201cThe (sic) government is clearly out of control, and their army probably as well (and) for the Israeli people to allow this in their name is a despicable disgrace\u201d, he said.<\/span><\/p>\n By contrast, Evans has been pretty well mum on Gaza, despite bringing home the Sunhak Peace Prize earlier this year, and despite a consensus emerging from <\/span>international<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>Israeli NGOs<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>UN Special Rapporteurs<\/span><\/a>, and <\/span>scholars<\/span><\/a> that Gaza is in fact a genocide. Global Citizen has been equally subdued, its last published article on Gaza (excluding one on polio vaccines) coming shortly after the Israeli invasion <\/span>in 2023<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n That article downplayed the Palestinian toll, while explicitly detailing Israeli casualties.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Since then, Global Citizen has studiously ignored the Gaza carnage, along with the estimated <\/span>902,000<\/span><\/a> Palestinians who were forcibly displaced (some call that an understatement) and the more than <\/span>half a million<\/span><\/a> trapped in famine. Its ignoring displacement numbers is somewhat ironic, given that in 2019 \u2013 well before the current Israeli assault \u2013 the same organisation highlighted a <\/span>Norwegian article<\/span><\/a> calling Gaza one of the world\u2019s most neglected displacement crises.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Not surprisingly, one thing Global Citizen failed to mention is the \u2018G\u2019 word.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Music has long played a vital role in political advocacy. At Global Citizen, Nigerian singer Ayra Starr lent her voice to renewable power for Africa, where \u201c<\/span>some children<\/span><\/a> have no access to light at (night)\u201d, while actors Kristin Bell and Danai Gurira focused on the need to end sexual violence in war.<\/span><\/p>\n But the whole show seemed scripted when compared to Glastonbury (UK), where performers <\/span>queued up<\/span><\/a> (at some <\/span>personal risk<\/span><\/a>) to highlight the Palestinian plight. \u201cWe think about the fact that us as whiteys, we\u2019re the f\u2014ing colonisers, and that\u2019s so disgusting\u201d, lead singer Amy Taylor, from Melbourne band Amyl and the Sniffers, told an energised Glastonbury crowd<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Events like Glastonbury and Global Citizen matter because they draw attention from audiences who may not otherwise engage with politics, particularly young people. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI know <\/span>for a fact<\/span><\/a> that when we unite, we make noise that leads to real change \u2026 governments and corporations listen, policies change, financial investments are made and progress happens,\u201d Sydney\u2019s own Hugh Jackman told the Global Citizen crowd.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n A choreographed, self censoring vibe<\/p>\n But if the point is engaging young people around issues which truly resonate \u2013 and right now that\u2019s Gaza \u2013 Glastonbury\u2019s raw energy trumped Global Citizen\u2019s choreographed, self-censoring vibe. An Economist-YouGov poll in the US last month showed well over half those aged 18-29 believe Israel is committing genocide: <\/span>far more<\/span><\/a> so than older Americans.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In the pantheon of activist events drawing worldwide attention, there are more Global Citizens downplaying Gaza than Glastonburys taking it on. Yet others were always going to try and square that ledger, such as Brian Eno, whose <\/span>benefit concert<\/span><\/a> this month saw more than 70 artists converge on Wembley Stadium (UK) including Richard Gere, Paul Weller, Damon Albarn, Annie Lennox and Portishead.<\/span><\/p>\n Dubbed <\/span>Together for Palestine<\/span><\/a>, Gaza was well and truly on the Wembley agenda.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The self-censorship of organisations like Global Citizen on Gaza should come as no real surprise. We\u2019ve seen it happen here in Australia, where <\/span>prominent<\/span><\/a> institutions were pressured to curb or vary their Gaza coverage, helping manufacture a perspective from which the <\/span>October 7<\/span><\/a> attacks occurred in <\/span>a vacuum<\/span><\/a>, and Israel has every right to \u201cdefend itself\u201d.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Eno\u2019s concert featured words from Ben Jamal, Director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign: \u201cI want you to look into the mirror and ask yourself \u2018what did I do when Gaza was going through a genocide?\u2019\u201d For some, the answer is \u201cvery little\u201d, and \u2013 as with self-censoring media personalities \u2013 the reason why lies in the threat to careers.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n One cautionary tale is that of Melissa Barrera \u2013 a star of the horror film franchise Scream \u2013 who was fired from her role in the next instalment of that series <\/span>for posting<\/span><\/a> on social media about the horrors of Gaza. Then there\u2019s left wing stalwart <\/span>Susan Sarandon<\/span><\/a>, who was dropped by her Hollywood agency after speaking at a pro-Palestinian rally.<\/span><\/p>\n Despite such pressures, those who stayed mum on Gaza during the Global Citizen event might do well to reflect on Jamal\u2019s words. No amount of spin and omission will ultimately obscure the fact that this is <\/span>genocide<\/span><\/a>, and that they chose to ignore it.<\/span><\/p>\nGlobal citizens and uncitizens<\/h3>\n