Pro-Palestinian chants filled London’s Ovo Arena Wembley on Wednesday as thousands attended Together for Palestine (T4P), Britain’s biggest fundraiser yet for Gaza. The 12,500-capacity venue sold out, with tickets priced at £70 each, and the event streamed online to a global audience.The concert featured performances from Bastille, James Blake, Paloma Faith, Jamie xx, and PinkPantheress, alongside Palestinian artists Sama’ Abdulhadi, Saint Levant and Elyanna. Actors including Benedict Cumberbatch, Florence Pugh and Nicola Coughlan appeared on stage, while broadcaster Mehdi Hasan, footballer Eric Cantona, and UN envoy Francesca Albanese also addressed the audience.Organised by musician Brian Eno, the fundraiser aimed to support Palestinian-led charities and to challenge what participants described as a culture of silence around Gaza. “Even finding a venue proved challenging: the mere mention of the word ‘Palestine’ was a near-certain precursor to refusal,” Eno wrote in the Guardian. “But at some point in the past few months, something changed.”
The Together for Palestine initiative
According to its organisers, every penny raised goes to frontline humanitarian groups including the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund (PCRF), the Palestinian Medical Relief Society (PMRS), and Taawon, which runs the largest orphan care programme in Gaza. By Wednesday night, the show had raised £1.5 million, organisers announced.The T4P website describes its mission as providing food, medicine, clean water, education and trauma care in a territory where “children in Gaza are being buried under rubble, starved by siege, maimed by bombs.” It highlights the work of local health providers who serve millions of Palestinians despite constant risks.The set at Wembley was designed with Palestinian artist Malak Mattar and featured the work of eight Palestinian artists reportedly killed in Israeli strikes. “We want to empower people to take action,” Mattar said. “We owe the people of Palestine our solidarity.”
A charged political backdrop
The event came as global outrage over Gaza intensifies. The United Nations recently declared famine in parts of the territory, blaming Israel’s “systematic obstruction” of aid. A UN inquiry went further this week, concluding that genocide is occurring in Gaza – a charge Israel has firmly rejected as “distorted and false.”Florence Pugh urged fellow artists not to remain silent: “Silence in the face of such suffering is not neutrality. It is complicity.” Nicola Coughlan echoed the call, criticising celebrities who “have hundreds of millions of followers” but “say nothing in this moment.”