Annie Lennox is maintaining her campaign speaking out against the Middle East war.
In another posting at her MySpace site, Annie says “As each day goes by while the death toll in Gaza rises, hopes for lasting peace seem to diminish. A third of the fatalities (currently over 800) are children. The UN resolution for ceasefire was vetoed by the US, which rendered it useless. How many more innocent civilians have to die before the carnage stops?”As well as a very famous music identity, Annie has used her celebrity to promote Peace and Humanitarian issues for decades. “The citizens of Gaza are completely imprisoned,” she writes. “There is NO safe place for them to go, so when they are showered with leaflets sent from the planes, warning them to avoid likely targets, what are they supposed to do?? They are being relentlessly bombarded from the skies, from the sea, and on the ground. Mosques, schools, universities...homes. Gaza is a nightmarish death trap”.
While governments are either ignoring the situation or siding with one of the fighting parties, Annie points out that the victims are the innocent people. “There is little water, the sanitation has broken down, the hospitals are overflowing with casualties, with people dying in the corridors,” she writes. “Doctors are working 24 hours are day, with no proper medical supplies, and regular power cuts. People cannot get access to food or basic requirements. The international humanitarian organisations are struggling to assist, but the three hour slots allotted to them are barely workable, and they risk their lives trying to gain access. Several aid workers have been killed”.
She says the fight is a lost cause. “This military bombardment will never bring about a peaceful resolution for either side in this man made catastrophe”.
Her outspoken comments on the Middle East situation have angered many people from Israel.
In the Jerusalem Post over the weekend, one writer who claimed to be a senior advisor to President Shimon Peres but remained anonymous wrote a letter to Annie. “I cannot claim that I am familiar with music in general, and with British music in particular. Therefore, regretfully I must note at the outset of my letter that until two days ago, I did not exactly know who you are,” he wrote.
“When I saw the fervor with which you demonstrated at the anti-Israeli demonstration in London and your interviews in which you slandered my people and my country in their efforts to defend the lives of our citizens in the southern part of our nation, I decided to write to tell a short story about what is happening in our country”.
He then told a story about how innocent people were being Killed by Hamas in Israel but failed to point out that Israel is also killing innocent people in Palestine.
Annie’s point is that both sides are to blame. Like John Lennon before her, and the efforts of Bob Geldof and Bono in more recent years, Annie Lennox is one of the few outspoken stars doing something for Peace around the world.
It is a shame there is so much negativity about her actions and that they are taken the wrong way.
In another posting Annie wrote, "I am not anti-Israeli nor have I ever been, and for anyone to say that I am is profoundly offensive and completely wrong”.
One writer for the Herald-Sun in Melbourne last week had the audacity to ask what right an 80s pop star had to speak out about such issues. What a moron.
