Faith said she is ‘fortunate to have a platform and I know that if I don’t use it to speak out for the oppressed then I am complicit in their [Palestinians’] oppression’ [Getty]
British singer and actor Paloma Faith delivered a powerful speech at a pro-Palestine protest in London on Saturday, vowing she “won’t be silent until Palestine is free”.
Addressing thousands of protesters near the Israeli Embassy and draped in a Palestinian keffiyeh, Faith condemned Israel’s assault on Gaza and called for Palestinian freedom.
“I know that Israel has violated every ceasefire agreement it has ever signed,” Faith told the crowd. “But even with that knowledge, after months of watching this genocide, I wasn’t prepared for the new depths of brutality that Israel has descended to.”
The singer reflected on Gaza’s devastating death toll, noting that observing a minute’s silence for the at least 174 children killed since Israel broke the ceasefire on 11 March would last over 300 hours.
“We should stand in silence for a minute for every child killed in Gaza in this genocide but if we did that, we’d be silent for over 300 hours. So I won’t fall silent,” she said.
“I’m fortunate to have a platform, and I know that if I don’t use it to speak out for the oppressed, then I am complicit in their oppression,” she added.
The protest saw thousands of Britons gather in an emergency demonstration against Israel’s renewed offensive in Gaza, where more than 61,700 Palestinians have been killed since October 2023.
Alongside Faith, actors Khalid Abdalla and Juliet Stevenson also addressed the crowd, denouncing Israel’s actions and calling for a Palestine free from occupation and bombardment.
Faith later took to Instagram, sharing a snippet of her speech and expressing how hard she found it to contain her emotions while speaking. She thanked the Palestine Solidarity Campaign for inviting her to speak and urged people to recognise the injustice unfolding in Gaza.
“Anyone who has a heart, you must see how wrong this is,” she wrote, sharing a poem for Gaza’s children by renowned Palestinian poet Khaled Juma.
Faith has long voiced her solidarity with Palestinians. Last year, she signed an open letter urging the UK government to end arms exports to Israel and helped raise over £115,000 for Medical Aid for Palestinians at a fundraiser concert.
The ongoing war has devastated Gaza, flattening entire neighbourhoods and plunging the Strip into a deep humanitarian crisis. In recent weeks, health officials have warned of worsening food insecurity as Israel continues to block aid from reaching the enclave.
