The Question Pro-Palestinian Coachella Rockers Can’t Answer
The music industry’s silence over October 7 wasn’t just deafening.
It curdled the soul.
Bono and Madonna spoke out immediately after Hamas’ savage attacks, including a music festival assault that killed hundreds of revelers.
U2’s frontman shared his hurt with the band’s fans a day after the atrocities.
“In the light of what’s happened in Israel and Gaza, a song about non-violence seems somewhat ridiculous, even laughable, but our prayers have always been for peace and for non-violence …But our hearts and our anger, you know where that’s pointed. So sing with us… and those beautiful kids at that music festival.”
The industry mostly took a knee after that. The Grammy Awards came and went without a mention of the remaining hostages. Musicians who traditionally spoke out against injustice couldn’t find their voice to demand their safe return.
Instead, they turned their ire against Israel and demanded a ceasefire.
John Ondrasik stands as a jarring exception.
The singer known to millions as Five for Fighting (“Superman”) never stopped speaking out for the hostages. He wasn’t pleased to see incendiary images from the recent Coachella Music and Artist Festival, described by Variety as the biggest music event of its kind.
The Irish rap trio Kneecap shared a message reading, ““F*** Israel / Free Palestine” on a screen during its time on stage.
Not to be outdone, far-Left Green Day took a break from attacking President Donald Trump to support Palestinians in the current melee. The band changed a line from “Jesus of Suburbia” to, “Running away from pain like the kids from Palestine.”
Ondrasik shared an interview snippet on X in which he called out his industry and, more specifically, Green Day.
“The music industry has been a disgrace,” he said of its response to Hamas’ barbarism. “It’s not just the silence. It’s the fact that they spout the Hamas propaganda.”
Ondrasik praised Green Day’s music but posed a brutal question for the band.
A simple question for @GreenDay, @macklemore, and my pals in the music biz.
pic.twitter.com/FVHciSIArA
— John Ondrasik (@johnondrasik) April 19, 2025
“If you truly cared about innocents in Gaza … wouldn’t the first thing you’d demand be the releasing of the Israeli hostages, because that’s what ends the war. But they never say that. Why is that? Do they really care about the innocents they claim to?”
Disturbed’s David Draiman has Ondrasik’s back. Draiman has been just as vocal about the hostage crisis and the waves of antisemitism flooding Western culture.
The rocker reached out to Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong on social media. He wanted the chance to respectfully share his point of view.
We’ll have to wait and see if that happens.
The post The Question Pro-Palestinian Coachella Rockers Can’t Answer appeared first on Hollywood in Toto.
