Bob Geldof blasts Labour’s deadly inaction on Gaza

Bob Geldof has spoken out against Labour’s inaction on Israel’s continuing genocide of the Palestinian people:

“What do you make of our own government's reaction so far?”

– Trevor Phillips

“Not enough… Can we focus on the issue at hand…the issue is stopping children and mothers from starving in Gaza”.

~ Bob Geldof

pic.twitter.com/yUAE4h3TWt

— James Melville 🚜 (@JamesMelville) July 27, 2025

It’s an important message that more people need to hear, because some may be fooled into thinking that Labour is backing away from supporting Israel.

Cynical politicians

As a result of Israel cutting off aid, famine is now wiping out the Palestinian population of Gaza:

Gaza Isn’t Starving, It Is Being Starved

This isn’t some kind of unfortunate famine caused by a drought or natural disaster. It is a deliberately manufactured starvation campaign, implemented with genocidal intent.

Reading by Tim Foley. pic.twitter.com/rOaXRmi5gC

— Caitlin Johnstone (@caitoz) July 21, 2025

Alex de Waal is one of the world's foremost experts on famine. Listen to every word he says about Israel's forced starvation of the people of Gaza:

"There is no case since WW2 of starvation that has been so minutely designed and controlled" pic.twitter.com/MylTCW31xj

— Trita Parsi (@tparsi) July 21, 2025

This dark turn of events means that even supportive Western politicians feel forced to speak out. While you could argue there’s no practical difference between using bombs to eradicate Palestinians and using starvation, there’s something about the latter that cynical Western politicians find harder to defend. This is why politicians like Keir Starmer are now releasing messages like the following:

The appalling scenes in Gaza are unrelenting.

The UK will pull every lever we have to get food and lifesaving support to Palestinians, and we will evacuate children who need urgent medical assistance.

This humanitarian catastrophe must end. pic.twitter.com/eNg7E5ABme

— Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) July 25, 2025

You’ll notice that Starmer isn’t clear on who or what is causing the famine, treating it like a natural disaster (“humanitarian catastrophe”) rather than the ideological genocide it is. Consequently, many believe that Starmer and others simply want Israel to return to the more easily-ignored form of genocide that we saw over the past few years.

Many Labour MPs have now called for the government to recognise the Palestinian state, but unlike France’s Emmanuel Macron, Starmer seems unwilling to even make this gesture.

One person cutting through Labour’s cynical bullshit is Bob Geldof, who responded as follows when Trevor Phillips asked what he thought of Labour’s response:

this is a distractive thing about, ‘oh, let’s recognise the state’. Absolutely. It should’ve been done ages ago…  it’s not going to make any material difference. Please, Labour MPs, stop signing your letters.

He continued:

Guys, focus on the issue to hand. It isn’t the recognition of the state that will come inevitably, and the sooner, the better. But that isn’t the issue with what you are telling us nightly, Trevor. …

[As the Financial Times] reported today, children are taking a teaspoonful of salt and as much water as they can drink to fill their bellies. Who are we? Who are we? In Bristol this week, they created the fourth largest computer that can do 23 quintillion deductions in a second. And children are taking a teaspoonful of salt and a belly full of water down the road.

Shut up. What have we become that we can do this miracle and perpetuate this agony. Honestly, Trevor, seriously like, you know beyond our arguments, can we all just focus on what’s important?

Bob Geldof: lying politicians

Bob Geldof also cut through the constant propaganda being spewed by Israel:

#trevorphillips: "The Israeli view is that there is no famine caused by Israel. Theres a man made shortage but its been engineered by Hamas…"

Bob Geldof: "The Israeli authorities are lying"

"They're lying, did you say?"

"They're lying. Netanyahu is a liar. The IDF are lying" pic.twitter.com/QE0CpffTVW

— Saul Staniforth (@SaulStaniforth) July 27, 2025

As reported by Sky News:

Sir Trevor asked the Live Aid organiser: “The Israeli view is that there is no famine caused by Israel, there’s a manmade shortage, but it’s been engineered by Hamas.

“I guess the Israelis would say we don’t see much criticism from your side of Hamas.”

In response, Geldof said “that’s a false equivalence” and “the Israeli authorities are lying”.

The singer then added: “They’re lying. [Benjamin] Netanyahu lies, is a liar. The IDF are lying. They’re dangling food in front of starving, panicked, exhausted mothers.

“And while they arrive to accept the tiny amount of food that this sort of set up pantomime outfit, the Gaza Humanitarian Front, I would call it, as they dangle it, then they’re shot wantonly.

“This month, up to now, 1,000 children or 1,000 people have died of starvation. I’m really not interested in what either of these sides are saying.”

He added: “If the newsfeeds and social feeds weren’t so censored in Israel, I imagine that the Israeli people would not permit what has been done in their name.”

#Trevorphillips: "The point I'm really just making is, isn't it a bit unfair to say this is the Israelis as a whole"

Bob Geldof: "Stop it Trevor.. if Israelis want to protest.. stuff your cars full of food & drive through that border & let your own army stop you.. shame on you" pic.twitter.com/6Jnl0hdyuI

— Saul Staniforth (@SaulStaniforth) July 27, 2025

False impartiality

As many have said before, the job of a journalist isn’t to publish that one person said it’s raining and another said it isn’t; it’s to cut through the noise and figure out if it’s actually raining. This is why it needs to be called out every time a journalist utters a phrase like “the Israeli view” in relation to Israel’s ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people.

It doesn’t take a genius to work out that Israel is the cause of this problem, and nearly two years into the genocide even shit-for-brains British media figures should be able to figure that out. And it’s not just cutting off aid, either – Israel Defense Force (IDF) troops are literally massacring Palestinians seeking aid:

🚨New food MASSACRE
Israeli occupation forces have KILLED dozens of starving aid seekers near the so called US-Israeli aid distribution centre in Rafah! pic.twitter.com/3GWKx8qff0

— Motasem A Dalloul (@AbujomaaGaza) July 16, 2025

And this isn’t even something they’ve just started doing:

After aid trucks entered a shelter & reached the families in Beit Hanoun, the israeli waited for them leave, then killed the people & burnt the aid pic.twitter.com/GDrZxjoQl4

— Sarah Wilkinson (@swilkinsonbc) November 13, 2024

The point of the ‘boy who cried wolf’ is that if you keep lying, no one will believe you. This is a story that children readily understand; why can’t big boys like Trevor Phillips grasp the concept? How far does Israel have to go before the British media will stop both-sidesing the situation? At this point, so-called British journalists are unarguably participating in genocide denial, and while we’ve long been critical of these people, this is a level of perversity that shocks even us.

Bob Geldof explains why he's speaking out about Gaza now.

Yes people should speak out now, but we are where we are because Israel has been given impunity to commit its genocide over the last 21 months, & people with platforms choosing not to speak out have fed that impunity pic.twitter.com/PnkOQki6sB

— Saul Staniforth (@SaulStaniforth) July 27, 2025

Britain’s shame, as Bob Geldof highlighted

Britain’s political establishment has provided ongoing political and financial to Israel’s genocide, and our media has been a willing disseminator of genocidal propaganda. Even now, when there’s no way for them to openly defend this situation, they are still doing what they can to lessen the resentment against Israel, but ultimately they’re failing to achieve anything besides turning more of the British public against them.

Bob Geldof is right.

It’s time for politicians to shut the fuck up and take action.

Featured image via Alfred Weidinger (Wikimedia) / Number 10 (Flickr) – all images cropped